


Cannibal

by LovelyCliches (hotchnerfuckmeup)



Category: Alexis G Zall, Dolan Twins - Fandom, Dolan Twins/Youtube, Trevor Moran - Fandom, ethan dolan - Fandom, grayson dolan - Fandom, liza koshy - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Graphic Description of Corpses, Love Triangles, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-02-14 21:45:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13016796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotchnerfuckmeup/pseuds/LovelyCliches
Summary: You’re one of many to take refuge at a camp, just trying to stay alive.  Outside the walls of your sanctuary is the undead, or as everyone calls them, the cannibals.  It would be nice to say that the cannibals are your biggest challenge for fighting for survival, but it turns out a small group of guys that you call the Scabs are the real threat.  They do anything they can to be the best at surviving, pretending the damned apocalypse is the Hunger Games.  Numerous times, they set you and your people up to die, but luckily they’re unsuccessful.  You have to stay one step ahead of them before they can make their next move.But when their base gets destroyed by their own members, the remaining three ask you and your people to take them in, surrendering to you completely.  Can you trust the two handsome twins and their friend?  And what happens when you fall for Ethan, former leader of the Scabs?You all have to work together to bring down the Traitors, and along the way, you figure out who you can trust, and who you can’t.(story from original tumblr account - DO NOT REPOST)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an original work by me. Please do NOT repost ANYWHERE without permission to do so or credit. In case someone stumbles across it on another site (tumblr, fanfiction, etc.) please contact me immediately. Also, to avoid confusion, this story I first posted on tumblr myself (highqualitydolans), so obviously if you see it there, no need to let me know. 
> 
> Anyways, enjoy.
> 
> Part One Warnings: Mature language and content (14+). Graphic content.

“Yeah, fuck that,” Trevor says, looking down at all the cannibals below us. There’s probably eighteen or nineteen of them in the trashed kitchen, and there’s piles upon piles of canned food in there too. That’s not what we’re here for, but it’s right there, so might as well take it. 

“Trev.”

We’re standing on the open roof of the mostly demolished house. The cannibals are basically trapped inside, meaning we will be too, if we aren’t careful. 

I take a grappling hook and rope out of my pack, handing it to Trevor, who said he was going to do the honors of retrieving the supplies that are currently surrounded by cannibals. He just looks at the hook and rope as if I were holding a snake out to him.

“No,” he says, shaking his head.

“Trevor, come on,” I reply, holding them out further to him.

“I can’t Y/N, I’m sorry.”

I roll my eyes before looping the rope around my own waist. I scan the roof for any debris, bending over to grab a loose shingle.

“Hold this,” I say, giving Trevor the excess rope. He takes it as I launch the shingle towards the opposite end of the kitchen below us, away from the food we’re after. Just as I was hoping, the cannibals turn at the sound of the shingle hitting the wall, all of them moving towards it. I grab a loose pipe and throw it, too, just for good measure.

“Okay, pull me up when I tell you to,” I say, hooking the end of the rope on the edge of the hole in the roof. “I will kill you if you drop me,” I tell Trevor.

“Well, if I drop you, you’ll be dead within minutes,” he points out, completely serious. I shoot him a look before sitting on the edge of the hole and swinging my legs down.

The cannibals are searching on the opposite end of the kitchen, looking for the source of the sound that was just made. I take a deep breath and clutch my pack to my stomach before lowering myself into the kitchen as Trevor holds tightly onto the rope, ensuring I don’t fall. I hold my thumb up, signalling him to keep lowering me. 

I can feel my heartbeat in my throat as I watch the cannibals scavenge the other side of the room. I try to stay as quiet as possible as I grab the cans, one by one, attempting to stuff as many in my pack as possible, all while keeping an eye on the cannibals.

I manage to fit at least twenty cans into my pack before it gets full, not able to hold anymore. I hold my thumb back up, signalling for Trevor to pull me back up, but right as he begins to pull, one of the cans in my pack falls out, tumbling to the ground.

One of the cannibals turns, looking in my direction, so I quickly hold my thumb lower, signalling Trevor to stop.

The cannibal looks at me with wide eyes, trying to capture movement. I stay as still as possible, not daring to move an inch. The can below me begins to roll towards the cannibal, causing its eyes to follow. It looks up with narrowed eyes that were once human, looking around with caution. I continue to stay still, holding my breath.

The cannibal moves towards me slowly, even though I know they’re very capable of speed. She takes careful steps in my direction, moving her head around, looking for more movement. Above me, I can hear Trevor breathing heavy, probably crying a bit out of worry. The cannibal is right in front of me, her lifeless eyes boring into mine, but I manage to keep still. She snarls, showing off her discolored teeth and bloody tongue. After what feels like an eternity, she slowly turns back to the other cannibals, moving slowly towards them. 

I release the breath I was holding and give Trevor another thumbs up. He begins to pull me up again, but the weight of my body dangling over the side of the hole begins to give, and debris starts falling freely, causing a few loud crashes to the ground.

All the cannibals in here are facing me now, my movements enough for them to see me.

“Trevor!” I scream, grabbing to rope myself as I try to pull myself up. The roof is about to give and I could be minutes away from becoming a cannibal myself.

They’re fast, let me tell you. Before I’m out of the kitchen, one grabs my ankle, pulling me down with strength I wish they didn’t have. 

“Trevor!” I yell again, kicking with everything I have, managing to get away, but not without sacrificing my shoe. 

“Come on!” He yells, cutting the rope from my waist and grabbing my hand. We run away as just as the roof begins to collapse. At the edge, we have no choice but to jump where we’ll land on the ground at least seven feet below us. But we don’t think about it, we just jump.

I somersault, making the blow less painful than it needs to be, but Trevor, as uncoordinated as he is, lands wrong on his ankle and I can hear a smack over the sound of the building behind us crashing to the ground.

Breathing heavy, I sit up, rubbing my now aching head and looking over to Trevor who is laying on his back, panting as well.

“I think I’m dying,” he mutters dramatically.

“We all are,” I reply, standing and walking to him. He sits up slowly, wincing.

“I think I broke something,” he says, clutching his left ankle. I inspect it, looking for anything serious, but I don’t see bone. He probably just twisted it bad enough for it to pop.

“Let’s get you back to camp,” I say, throwing his arm over my shoulder and standing up. I’m lucky he’s thin, or I would be struggling. “What happened to that flexible body of yours? You should’ve landed that jump without a scratch,” I day with a chuckle.

“I haven’t danced in almost a year, I’m not good with my feet anymore.”

I shake my head and let him lean on me as we walk (and hop) away from the now demolished house.

“Blaine needs to start sending out the stronger ones for supplies,” I chuckle, holding tightly to Trevor’s slender waist.

“Blaine can suck my dick,” he replies between hops.

“I thought he has already,” I joke, which earns me an eye roll.

* * * * *

Lakewood was the best place we found. It has shelter, bathrooms, showers, all that jazz. Trevor, Alexis and I came here about three months ago, right after the epidemic of people eating people really broke out. There were already people here when we found it, but we were really weak and hadn’t eaten in at least two weeks, so they took us in.

Lakewood used to be a summer camp, I remember coming here when I was younger, but once I reached junior high and high school, I stopped coming. It’s weird thinking about how when I used to stay here, I would easily wish I was back in my own bed and get homesick, just waiting for the week to be over. But now it is my home, at least it is until it’s raided or taken over by cannibals, which we can only hope will never happen.

Blaine secured the place with a giant fence around the entire camp, minus the lake. The cannibals only see movement, so the fence blocks us from them. If there’s one nearby, they’ll hear us, but they won’t see us, so it usually just gets bored and moves on.

“You two took a while,” Blaine says as Alexis and Toni close the gate behind us. Blaine steps to the other side of Trevor, hooking his arm to help steady him. “Took a nasty one, huh?”

“I’ll meet you guys in the infirmary later,” I tell them both as Blaine nods and leads Trevor away. I have to talk to Alexis.

I walk through the camp, passing children playing in the wood chips and parents watching over them. The pool is occupied by a few older kids, playing water basketball. There’s women on the porches of the cabin decks, watching the sun set and knitting.

I make my way to our cabin, passing everyone I know by first name only. We keep introductions informal here. Blaine says if you are too attached to someone, it’s hard to watch them die. Although it’s ironic because it seems everyone here is attached to one another enough, even with first names only. Sometimes I don’t understand Blaine’s logic. Especially today when he decided it was a good idea to send Trevor and I out alone to gather food and supplies.

Alexis is sitting on the porch when I reach the cabin. She’s reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the hundredth time, considering it’s one of the seven books we have. She’s read the other six just as many times.

“Hey,” I say, sitting next to her on the steps.

“Back so soon?” she asks, looking up from the book. I smile and pull weeds from the ground.

“Trevor fell on his ankle. He’s worried it’s broken but I think he just twisted it wrong.”

“He’s always a little over dramatic,” she laughs with an eyeroll. “What’d you manage to snatch?”

“We went to that Harvey house with the wraparound porch and got a few cans of corn and stuff. The usual.”

“What about the knives and guns? I thought that’s why you guys went back,” she says, turning to face me.

“They were gone,” I tell her. “And the house was hoarded by cannibals.”

This is surprising to her. When we were last at that house, it was completely vacated and had loads of supplies. We gathered as food much as we could as we were running low, and planned on coming back for the weapons. Blaine decided to just send Trevor and I thinking the place would still be vacated and open. But when we got there, the doors were all locked and the house was infested with cannibals. Trevor and I were lucky the roof had a gaping hole in it.

“How is that possible? We were just there this morning and the entire perimeter was cleared, there wasn’t a cannibal for miles,” she says, shaking her head in disbelief.

“That’s not the weird part, either. The doors were completely barricaded. Those cannibals didn’t just walk in there, someone put them there.”

I can see her jaw clench, thinking the exact same thing I’m thinking. “The Scabs, you think it was them.” It didn’t come out as a question, it was a statement, a fact. And she was right, I did think it was them.

“They probably took the weapons after we left with the food this morning and knew were coming back for them so they put the cannibals in there and trapped them so they couldn’t get out.”

“I want to kill those scumbags,” she says through gritted teeth. I usually never see her angry, but when it comes to the Scabs, she can get scary. “How did they even lure a bunch of cannibals into one spot without getting eaten themselves?”

“One of them had fresh blood in its mouth,” I say. I remember the one that was right next to my face. Her mouth was practically drooling blood, it looked like she had just finished feasting. The Scabs must’ve used a human as bait.

“We have to do something. Did you tell Blaine?”

“You know he wouldn’t listen to me,” I point out. Anytime anyone mentions the Scabs, he scoffs and pretends not to hear. He knows they’re bad, but he believes that humans shouldn’t be pit against other humans, especially in the god damned apocalypse. “This isn’t a fight he wants to be a part of.”

The Scabs is a group of guys who want to claim themselves as the best survivalists ever. They trust no one and keep to themselves and do everything they can to be the last people standing on this earth. They act like the apocalypse is a huge competition. That’s why Blaine wants nothing to do with them. He says it’s easier to pretend they don’t exist, but that would only be true if they weren’t complete assholes who steal our supplies and try to kill us with a horde of cannibals. I really just want to get even.

“We have to find out where they are,” Alexis says, as if it’s going to be the easiest thing to accomplish. “We find their camp and flush them out.”

“We can’t just kill them because we feel like it, Lex.”

“Y/N, they have been playing mind games with us for weeks now. We have to do something.”

I look at her, thinking about our options. “We’ve only seen the guys once, we barely even know what they look like.” As much as I want to get them back, too, it’s probably next to impossible. We caught a glimpse of them when we realized they were watching us gather supplies. We weren’t even sure it was the same guys, but then they found out we’d given them a name and started leaving behind signatures saying “Scabs” when we would search for supplies. They knew where we went to get food and armory and they knew when we would be there. So they started planning their trips where they would be there before us, stealing what we wanted.

“We can bait them,” she says, determined. “Act like we need food and then pretend we need to make more than one trip. Then we act like we’re leaving but then we hang back and wait for them. Then we follow them to their camp.” It’s an idea, but it’s not something I think the Scabs will fall for.

“I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head.

“Well, while you think about it, let’s go get some dinner,” she replies, nudging me with her foot. She gets up and walks towards Chow Hall, her book still in hand and a small bounce to her step.

I never understood how she could be so optimistic all the time, how she sees the bright side of everything, even on this hell hole of a planet. Although, the Scabs are one thing she can’t find the good in. The only thing she’s positive about when it comes to them is that she’s positive she wants to end them.

I watch her leave before standing up and walking off the porch, but I don’t go towards Chow Hall, I walk towards Blaine’s cabin. If I think about it too long, then I’m not going to have the courage to do what I’m about to do.

* * * * * 

I knock softly on the door of Blaine’s cabin, listening for him on the other side. Trevor is probably here too, but he’s part of my plan. Even though I haven’t told him about it…

Blaine answers the door, opening it with a smile. “Hey.”

“Trevor here?” I ask, trying to seem nonchalant.

“Nah, he’s at dinner. We got him fixed up, just a twisted ankle, he’s dramatic as usual,” he replies with a smile and an eye roll. 

“I actually came to talk to you,” I tell him, stepping forward slightly. “I was wondering who was on gate duty tonight.”

“I think Liza is, why?”

“Well, I thought maybe I could cover tonight’s shift.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “Why?” he asks suspiciously.

“Feeling nice,” I say simply, raising my shoulders. “Liza’s been working pretty hard, thought maybe she’d want a break.”

I can tell he’s not buying it, but I’m already forming a plan B in my head if he says no.

Which he does. “You were just on a run, why don’t you rest up?”

“Blaine, I-”

“Go eat dinner.”

I decide to let it go, knowing I can persuade Liza myself. I sigh deeply, feigning disappointment and walk away, towards Liza’s cabin instead of Chow Hall. I’m sure Alexis is probably wondering where the heck I am, but once she knows what I’m planning, she will be all for it.

I knock on the door twice, and when there’s no answer, I step off the porch and head to David’s cabin. She’s bound to be there.

Couples in Wood Lake aren’t uncommon, but they’re strongly discouraged by Blaine, which is ironic because every other day, he and Trevor are at it until daybreak. Liza and David are different though, they were already together before they came here, even before the plague.

Just as I suspected, Liza and David are at his cabin, sitting on the porch together. David’s lounging in the hammock with a baseball cap over his face while Liza is looking through a really old fashion magazine as if it were still relevant.

“Hey,” I say, walking up the steps. Liza peeks up at me.

“Hey. Skipping dinner?” she asks, closing the magazine and patting the step next to her, inviting me to sit.

“Big lunch,” I lie, crossing my legs underneath me. “You’re on gate duty tonight, right?” Might as well get right to the point.

“Yeah, why? Wanna switch or something?”

“No, um,” I start. I take a small breath, looking around the perimeter. No one who would snitch is around. “I need out of the camp tonight.”

She just looks at me with a curious expression. “You need out of the camp.”

I nod. “Well, Trevor, Alexis and I need out of the camp,” I finish, biting my lip.

“May I ask why?”

“Today at the Harvey house, I think the Scabs were there.”

David pops up at the mention of the Scabs. “What?” he asks, struggling to get out of the hammock. “Did you say Scabs?”

I nod at him as he finally gets out of the hammock and sits on the other side of Liza. “The house was completely barricaded and it was full of cannibals. I think the Scabs set it up and I think they might be there tonight.”

“What makes you think that?” Liza asks.

“I just- I have a feeling. They always leave a signature, something to let us know they’ve been there, but this time they didn’t, and I think that’s because they didn’t get a chance to before Trevor and I showed up.”

“You think they were there while you guys were?” David asks.

I nod my head. “And I think they’re smart enough to know that I would find that out.”

“But why do you think they’re going back tonight?” Liza asks.

“I think they never left. They’re probably there right now. I bet they wanted to wait to see if we would come back to find their signature.”

“I understand your worry, but this seems really far fetched,” Liza says. “I don’t think they’d waist that much time there.”

“I know it seems that way, but I told you, I just have this feeling. If they are there, we can follow them back to their base.”

“You know how scary Y/N’s intuition can be, babe,” David says to Liza matter-of-factly. And it’s true, I have this weird sort of sixth sense in my gut that tells me when something is wrong. I know it sounds crazy, because it is, but it hasn’t steered me wrong yet, and my gut is telling me they are going to be there tonight, waiting for us.

“What exactly is your plan?” she asks, sounding like she thinks I’m crazy. “It’s not like we can just confront them out of nowhere.”

“I say we go back to the Harvey house, and if they’re there, stay out of sight long enough for them to give up waiting and we follow them back to their base.”

“What makes you think they don’t know where our camp is?” she asks.

“They probably do, but if we do something to them before they do something to us, then,” I say, trailing off.

“Count me in,” David says suddenly.

“David!” Liza shoots him a look, but he seems determined.

“I’ll talk to Emmett and Andrew. We’ll need supplies and I know they won’t say anything.”

“Thanks,” I tell him with a nod as he stalks off towards Chow Hall. I look at Liza who already looks guilty. I feel a little bad pulling her into this, but if we want things done, I’m going to need her help.

She sighs and looks at her feet for a few seconds before looking up at me. “I’ll talk to Gabbie and see if she doesn’t mind keeping watch of the gate.”

I smile big and hug her. “Thank you.”

“I’m only helping you because the Scabs are a bunch of douches who have it coming to them. I’d much rather just do what I’m told and keep everyone in the gate and anything else out of it, though.”

“But it will feel so good to get those dingalings, won’t it?” I ask, releasing her.

“Let’s go eat dinner before I change my mind.”

* * * * *

A meal and two and a half hours later, seven of us are sitting mine and Alexis’s cabin. Emmett and Andrew both have bags full of weapons and supplies, ready for a fight, if one is to break out, but if everything goes as planned, we won’t have to worry about that. 

Liza is at the gate right now, waiting for Blaine to head to his cabin and give us the signal. David is shuffling a deck of cards to keep himself occupied. Alexis is reading the last chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird on her bed, and Trevor is at the other end of it, skimming through the same fashion magazine Liza had earlier. Gabbie is sitting on the rug, plucking at the loose strings. I’m next to the front door, watching towards the guard tower for Liza’s signal.

“How long does Blaine usually take to get to bed?” David asked Trevor.

“He’s usually in bed right away when I’m there, but since he thinks I’m sick, there’s no telling how long he’ll be,” he replies, not looking up from the mag. Trevor was sad he had to miss out on a night of fun with Blaine, but he was more looking forward to getting back at the Scabs.

“You have the right stuff, right?” I ask Andrew.

“Don’t worry, Y/N, we got everything you asked for.”

We stay silent for a few more minutes before Emmett decides it’s too much.

“What do you call a cow with a twitch?” he asks, not moving from his lying position on the floor. Gabbie looks up at him, her eyes narrowed in annoyance. When no one answers, he finishes the joke himself. “Beef jerky.”

“Do you have a deathwish?” Gabbie asks.

“Just trying to lighten the mood and kill the silence a bit,” he defends himself.

“See, this is why I don’t like you. You say the dumbest shit-”

“Since when is it a crime to be funny?”

“It’s not funny, it’s stupid and annoying. I swear you are so-”

As I tune out the sound of Gabbie and Emmett arguing over each other, a small but bright light flashes across my eyes from outside the front window. Liza’s signal.

“Guys,” I say, but the two are still bickering. “Guys!”

They stop and everyone turns to me. “Let’s go.”

* * * * * 

We make our way to the watch tower, careful to make our steps quiet. Liza is at the bottom, waiting for us. Once we reach her, Gabbie takes the gun from her hand.

“Remember what to do if Blaine comes out?”

She nods once at me. “Tell him Liza came to my cabin sick and I took over.”

“And then signal us with the buzzer.”

“Got it.” She climbs the ladder of the watch tower as David and Andrew open the gate.

“I still think this is a dumb idea,” Liza says to me as I hand her a knife and gun.

“Got a better one?”

“Yeah: don’t do it.”

I shake my head and walk out the gate with everyone, looking up at Gabbie with a thumbs up. She gives me one back and we close the gate back up.

“Think the seven of us can fit into the car?” David asks me.

“Let’s hope so.”

David, Liza and I squeeze into the front seat of the compact car while Alexis, Trevor, Andrew and Emmett sit in the back. It’s a tight fit, but whatever.

David steers in silence towards the Harvey house. It’s about a ten minute drive, quite a speedy trip compared to mine and Trevor’s forty minute walk earlier today.

“Kill the headlights,” I tell David before we make it to the driveway. He inches the car closer to the house, stopping on the side of the road and puts it in park.

We’re all quiet as we get out of the car, pressing the doors shut without a sound. Andrew passes out knives and gives David and I handguns (we’re the most accurate with them).

“Okay,” I whisper. “We should split up. David, you take Trevor, Alexis and Andrew. Take the front of the house, see if you can hear or see anything. Emmett and Liza, you guys come with me. We’ll go around to the back.”

Everyone nods at me, and we’re off. Emmett leads Liza and I around the back gate, towards the collapsed kitchen from earlier today. There’s a cannibal crushed underneath a piece of ceiling. Liza cringes at the sight and presses her knife into its head, killing it instantly. 

“I don’t hear anymore cannibals,” Emmett says, looking around at the rubble.

“Come on,” I tell them, heading towards the pool. We walk across the backyard, crouching in case there’s anyone here. The entire back yard seems empty, even of cannibals.

The three of us wander around the yard for a while. Emmett heads to the pool house while Liza and I make our way to the back door of the house. Just as we are about to open the door, it opens itself, revealing Alexis and David.

“Nothing,” David says. “It’s empty.”

“No cannibals?” I ask, to which he shakes his head.

“Other than the kitchen, it doesn’t even look like it’s been touched,” Alexis says. “They’re not here and I’m guessing they probably weren’t ever here anyways.”

“Yes they were,” Emmett calls from behind us. He’s in the empty pool, looking at the wall closest to us.

I turn and walk down the pool steps, and finally I see what he sees: ‘SCABS’ written in blood and a decapitated head stuck with an arrow right underneath it. It’s not just any head, either. It’s Ben, one of our people. He went missing last week, and we could only assume he was dead. Now we know, I guess.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Trevor says as everyone comes up behind us. He holds his stomach and moves away, Alexis following to comfort him.

“I really want to kill these motherfuckers,” Andrew says through gritted teeth.

“We can’t just kill them,” I try, but Liza looks at me incredulously.

“You don’t get it, Y/N. These guys are killing our people and flaunting it in our faces,” she says. “Ben was all of our friend. He was a good person, he didn’t deserve to die.”

“Look for tire tracks. This ends tonight,” David says, climbing out of the pool. Everyone follows suit.

I don’t know how to stop them at this point. “Guys, at least think about this. So say we find them, then what?”

“We kill them and get vengeance for Ben,” Emmett points out, as if it’s obvious.

“With a few measly knives and two guns? They’re probably surrounded by weapons and ammo right now.” This makes everyone stop in their tracks. “We aren’t ready for any kind of fight. If we find them, then we all die.”

They all look around at each other and at me. 

“She’s right. We need to plan this better,” Alexis says.

Everyone is silent for a few moments before David speaks again. “We should still find their base. That way we know where to come when we are ready.”

I sigh, not liking the idea, but knowing it’s our best option. 

We all spread out over the perimeter, looking for any kind of tire tracks or footprints, but to no avail. It’s not until we’re all back in the car, driving away that Liza sees it.

“What’s that?” she asks, pointing out her window. In the distance is smoke rising.

“A camp out maybe?” Andrew says.

“The smoke is white. That means the fire is out,” I reply. “It might be them.”

So we drive towards the rising smoke, watching for any type of campout, when we reach a wooden fence. David turns off the headlights as we approach the front entrance. Sure enough, on the front of the fence in big, red letters is the word ‘SCABS’.

“They sure have no humility, do they?” Liza comments as we park the car.

“You said the fires out, maybe they’re not here,” David tells me.

“It’s not a good idea,” I reply.

“We should at least know what we’re up against, Y/N,” Andrew says from the back seat. Without warning, they all get out of the car, gearing up. I shake my head, knowing this is a bad idea, but follow anyways.

David leads the group around the fence, finding an opening. I come up on the rear, watching behind us for anything. One by one, David helps us through the small opening in the fence. I look at him with a hard expression and he simply shrugs and goes in himself. Once we’re in, I hand the gun to Trevor.

“Want to keep watch?” I ask, knowing he probably wouldn’t want to go in anyway. He smiles as a thank you and takes my gun, trading it for the knife. 

“I’ll stay with him,” Alexis says. I nod my head and leave them there, following the rest.

There’s burnt wood fire in the middle of the sanctuary. It looks like a camp ground of some sort. There’s five log cabins surrounding us in the small area. It’s not tiny like the Harvey plantation, but it definitely isn’t as big as Lakewood. It’s the perfect size for a small group of guys.

“Let’s each take a cabin,” David says, stalking off towards one. The rest each head off towards the others. 

I’m the only one left standing hesitantly. What if the Scabs are still here?

I finally walk towards the last cabin, carefully trekking up the steps. I pull my flashlight out of my shorts and hold it out in front of me, not bothering to turn it on, but rather have it ready as use for a weapon. The door is open slightly, a huge red flag going up in my head, but I decide to ignore it and walk in slowly, looking around the darkened room. When I’m sure it’s empty, I reach to the side of the door and find the light switch, turning it on.

The room lights up with backlights, creating an eerie blue glow throughout the cabin. My stomach turns at what I see. There are jars upon jars of detached body parts lining the back wall on shelves. There’s legs, feet, hands, fingers, arms, torsos, ears. In the middle of the room is an island with stacks and stacks of papers. I look at the top one, seeing the word “Cure” written across the top in scrappy handwriting. I turn back to the wall of body parts, taking in the sight. A couple look like normal human parts with normal skin tones while others look discolored, as if they came from cannibals.

“What the hell?” I ask myself, scanning each jar.

They are labelled with numbers and letters. The first jar says ‘001A’ and the nxt says ‘001B’. It goes all the way up to ‘025H’. I don’t know what any of it means, but I don’t think I want to stay long enough to find out. I lean back away from the jars, but I don’t make it far before I feel a gun barrel on the back of my head. I freeze

“Find what you were looking for?” a deep voice says. It’s not one I recognize. “Be happy you’re cute, or I would’ve shot three minutes ago when you walked in here.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part Two Warnings: Mature content and language (14+). Graphic content.

He’d been watching me.

I slowly back away from the jars of detached body parts, feeling the barrel of his gun digging slightly into my head.

“Kneel,” he says in a hushed tone, and I do as I’m told, feeling my bare knees touch the solid floor beneath us. Next, he’s patting my sides and hips, finding my weapons and taking them from me. “You guys thought you could be slick, huh?”

I internally roll my eyes, knowing we should never have come in here. It had been a trap.

They had been watching us.

This one had been watching me.

“Come on,” he says, taking me by the elbow and walking me out the door like a dog.

When we get outside, Liza, David, Emmett, and Andrew are all lined up on their knees, all with guns pointing to the back of their heads. I have weird flashbacks to when I watched The Walking Dead with Alexis. It looks like we’re part of it now.

The guy pulling me tugs me to the ground, letting another guy point his gun at me. It’s only now that I truly see his face. He’s tan and muscular and with an incredibly sharp jawline. Even in the dark, his hazel eyes pierce into mine. I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t attractive.

The guy holding his gun to my head looks just like him, but different in a way, shorter hair, one dangling earing in his left ear.

“Welcome,” the first guy says with a handsome smile. “Glad you guys could make it to the party, we were only getting started.”

I look to my right where Liza looks scared, almost in tears. Andrew is on the other side of her, glaring up at the Scabs and Emmett’s head is tilted down, blood already dripping from his nose. David is to my left, keeping a close eye on Liza.

“Man, you guys all must have some pretty gnarly testicles on you to come here,” the guy continues. “I had my bets you wouldn’t. Tell me, who talked you into it?” He stepped closer to me. “You the leader of this group, princess? You the one who coaxed them to walking into our sanctuary? Because in my humble opinion, you don’t look like the type who’s got the guts to.”

He’s taunting me, trying to get a rise out of me. It’s working. It takes all the willpower in me not to jump up and beat this guy’s gorgeous face in.

He smiles, noticing that my breathing got heavier. “What’s wrong, princess? Did I say something to upset you?” He waits a few seconds before speaking again. “Stubborn one, aren’t you? Well I see you aren’t going to open your pretty little mouth, maybe this will help you.” He looks behind him for a second, holding his hand out to one of his friends, who hands him an axe.

The next five seconds seem to take a lifetime. His arms are up in the air and he’s facing Liza getting ready to swing at her. I hear David scream in fear as I reach my hand behind me and grab tightly onto the barrel of the gun against my hair, pulling it harshly out of the guy’s grip and swinging it into the jaw of the taunting bastard. He drops the axe midway through the air, letting it fall only inches from Liza’s legs.

Next thing I know, I’m pinned to the ground by the guy whose gun I took and another dude. My face is pressed hard against the gravel and my hands are being held tightly against my back. I can’t move at all.

The first guy is sitting up now, holding his chiseled chin and looking at me with a shocked expression, but he seems impressed. Not a second later, he’s laughing.

He falls back again, laughing his ass off, not at all looking like I just knocked him into next week. As he laughs, his fellow Scabs look at him as if he’s grown a second head.

“Ethan,” the twin says on top of me says, trying to snap his brother out of whatever mood he’s suddenly in.

Ethan continues to laugh for a moment before sitting back up and looking at me. He smiles and nods his head.

“Gotta say, princess, didn’t think you had that in you. Kudos,” he says to me, clapping and standing. “Come on Gray, Aaron, let her up.”

Although I can’t see, I assume his brother is giving him an evil look. He’s probably butthurt he was one-upped by a girl.

Him and Aaron let go of me, letting me finally get up.

“What’s your name?” Ethan asks when he’s standing in front of me.

I keep my mouth shut as I narrow my eyes at him.

“You mute or something?” he asks, narrowing his eyes at me in return. I swallow as I stare at him, trying not to let his good looks cloud my thoughts of what a complete bastard he is. I presume he’s the leader of the Scabs, considering his nature, and therefore, he’s in charge of who they kill. And they killed Ben. And he just tried to kill Liza. 

I really want to kill him.

“Fuck. You,” I say quietly, not daring to move. I don’t what he or his minions plan to do if I try to run.

“She speaks,” he replies with a smile. “Now that your voice works, mind telling me why the hell you crossed our fence?”

I stare at him more, the two of us silent. The only sound anyone can hear is that of Liza’s quiet crying and Emmett occasionally spitting, probably blood.

“You know, if you don’t answer my questions, I’m going to have to punish you,” Ethan whispers to me. His voice seems dominant and steady. He’s a natural leader, I can tell.

“You set this all up,” I finally say. “The cannibals, Ben. You wanted us to come here.”

“Cute and smart. Wow, sweetheart, you’re the whole package, aren’t you?”

He’s testing me. It’s taking my entire being not to hit him again. My fingernails are practically digging into the palms of my hands in a fist.

“You got us here, now what?” I ask, testing him right back. “Gonna kill us off one by one? Hold us captive until you have a use for us like you did Ben?”

“Use for him?” He looks confused for a moment. “You’re talking about lab work, right?”

“Please let us go,” a hoarse voice says behind me. It’s Liza. I mentally roll my eyes, willing her to keep her mouth shut right now.

“Shit, I really rattled that one, didn’t I?” Ethan asks me with fake concern, then he looks at her. “Look, I wasn’t actually gonna kill you, you know? Maybe scrape you up a bit, but I don’t kill.” I look at him incredulously. As if I didn’t just mention our friend whose head we found in a pool with evidence that he killed him. “Really I don’t kill. That guy, Ben? I’m not the one who killed him-”

“That was Jack. He came to us with his body-”

“Grayson,” Ethan cut off his twin. After giving him a warning stare for a few silent seconds, he looks back to me. “I’m sorry about your friend. Really, I am.” 

For a second, I hear sincerity in his voice. But just as quickly as I hear it, the thought is gone, and I still feel nothing but hatred boiling in me.

“Just tell us what you want. You can keep our weapons, all our shit, we don’t care. We promise not to come back if you just let us leave now,” I say, my voice surprisingly steady and low. I feel like I’m managing to bluff pretty well right now.

“Oh, we’re keeping your weapons, don’t worry,” he says, taking a single step closer to me. I restrain from moving myself considering there are guns pointed not only at my head, but all of my friends’ heads too. If I make another sudden movement, they’ll probably shoot without hesitation this time. “But I can’t just let you leave like that. The weapons were a given, but,” he continues, his feet gradually getting closer to me. He’s right in front of me now. Just as close as the cannibal was earlier today. Except instead of a bloody and toxic smelling snarl, Ethan’s smirk is sexy and threatening all at the same time. He’s so close I can smell his musky sweat and minty breath and I almost laugh at the fact that he took the time to brush his teeth before we raided their campout. “Well, babe, I’m going to need a bigger bribe to just let you all walk out of here. Well, not all of you.”

“She was on the perimeter,” a voice cuts through. It’s another guy, and he has Alexis in tow, gruffly holding onto her arm. “Had a gun. She was alone.”

I widen my eyes slightly, suddenly worried about Trevor, but Alexis gives me the tiniest nod, one only I can see. He’s okay.

“Well, shit,” Ethan says with a chuckle. “You really planned this out, did you?” He’s looking at me again. “I think we just found our bribe.”

“No,” I say firmly. There’s no way.

“I was going to offer string bean over there,” he starts, pointing to Emmett, “but I like the looks of this one.”

Alexis looks at me, her head nodding slightly once more. She’s okay with this. I don’t have a clue why, but she’s fine with it.

“Don’t worry, babe, I won’t keep her for long,” he says, stepping close to me again. “You and the rest of your crew leave quietly. You don’t talk to any of your other people about this. For two months, you five provide us with food and first aid. You’ll go on runs with us and we’ll take you back to your camp safely. And then, I’ll give your friend back. Unharmed, untouched. We’ll feed her, whatever she needs, but you work for us until I say you don’t. Clear?”

I look at Alexis again, silently begging her to say no. There’s no way we can just leave her here. But she looks determined. 

She has a plan.

“What’s in it for us?” I ask Ethan.

“Your friend’s life,” he answers. “Unless you want me to have one of my men chop her head off right now.”

“So we just work for you? You won’t hurt her.”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

I listen to Liza sniffling and I look at Alexis, her face a mess but unreadable. She’s not scared like Liza, but she’s not brave like me. She’s just… Existing right now. She’s just here.

“What if I say no?” I ask. There has to be another way.

“Then I take you all back to your camp. I’ll kill everyone inside that fence.”

They know where we live. They’ve probably always known.

“Have ourselves a deal?” he asks, holding his hand out to me. 

With one last look at Alexis, her face still indifferent. I trust her, but I still don’t want to leave her. For some reason, I don’t think she’s giving me a choice.

So I grab Ethan’s hand. It’s strong and firm and entirely too warm. We shake once before he smiles and turns to walk away. “Escort them out,” he says to his brother and one other guy who still had his gun fixated at my back. All the Scabs roughly grab each of us by the arm and walk us towards the front gate.

I turn back momentarily to watch as Ethan takes Alexis towards a cabin at the back of the sanctuary. He’s almost handling her with care, telling her to watch her step and using a gentle hand on her arm to guide her. Maybe he was serious when he said she would be unharmed. But I can’t shake the feeling that she won’t be okay come sunrise.

* * * * *

We gather at the car, all of us seemingly out of it. 

“Where’s Trevor?” Andrew asks, looking around. 

“I don’t know,” I answer, not knowing what else to say. Maybe he’s back at camp, making up for lost time with Blaine. Maybe he’s still in the Scabs’ sanctuary, hiding it out to save Alexis. Maybe he stalked off into the woods, too terrified to stay there by himself. I have no idea where he is.

“We gotta look for him,” Emmett says, wiping the now dried up blood from his face.

“They’re watching us,” David says, nodding his head in the direction of Grayson and another Scab at the front gate. They’re standing there, waiting to watch us drive away.

I sigh and head to the driver’s door, opening it.

“Y/N, we can’t just leave him here,” Liza says, her eyes wide with worry. I should’ve never asked her to come. She didn’t even want to in the first place, but stubborn me…

“We don’t have a choice,” I reply. “Trevor is smart. If he’s in there, he’ll figure it out. Besides, for all we know he went home. Let’s go.” I climb into the car, waiting for the others to join me. I take another look at the Scabs watching us. They seem on edge.

The Grayson guy keeps hopping from foot to foot, looking around the rest of the perimeter instead of just us. And the other guy, he’s short and lanky, he keeps looking up quickly in random directions as if he hears something in the distance. They both look uncomfortable as if something bad is about to happen.

Just then Ethan is at the gate, whispering something to the short one. His eyes go wide and he runs inside the gate. Now it’s just the twins standing there. Grayson is still looking uneasy while Ethan looks directly at me.

For some reason, he looks different than he did inside. He looks worried instead of menacing. His eyes are fixed on me and for a second I think he’s silently begging me to get out of the car and come back.

“We’ve got a problem,” Emmett says as he climbs in the van.

“What?” I ask, turning to face him. 

Our signal buzzer is in his hand. It’s vibrating.

Blaine is awake, and he knows we’re gone.

* * * * * 

I step on the gas, speeding away from the Scabs’ sanctuary, leaving two very nervous-looking twins behind. I don’t have time to think as I take the corners without caution, trying to get in range so Liza can talk through the walkie-talkie to Gabbie, but it’s still static.

“Try again,” Andrew shouts.

“It’s still offline, there isn’t a signal,” Liza answers frustratingly, turning the dial to and fro, trying to get some kind of frequency.

“He’s gonna kill us,” Emmett says. “We’re dead for the second time tonight. Why the fuck did we do this again?”

“Guys, calm down, we’re almost in range,” I say loudly.

“He’s-” the talkie says. It’s Gabbie’s voice, but it’s hard to make out. Her words come in bits over white noise. “-not——there’s——hurry!”

“Gabbie, can you hear me?” Liza shouts into the talkie. Nothing but static comes through. “Gabbie!”

We’re in range, so it should be working by now.

“She must have turned it off. We need to hurry,” David says.

“Blaine’s gonna fucking kill us,” Emmett retorts, grasping onto the back of my seat.

“He’s checking the perimeter,” Gabbie’s voice comes through.

“Gabbie! Does he know we’re gone?” I ask, barely focusing on steering the van.

“No. He’s doing a perimeter check right now. I’ll keep you posted. Just don’t come to the gate until I tell you to.”

As soon as Gabbie’s voice cuts out, I slow the van to a stop and kill the headlights. We’re maybe a couple hundred yards from the gate now, so if I continue on, Blaine would see us for sure.

“Okay, he noticed that the van’s gone,” Gabbie warns us. “I told him it was gone when I took over for Liza.”

“Did he check to see if I’m in my cabin?” Liza asks.

“Yeah, that was the first thing he did.”

Shit.

“But I told him you were really green when you asked me to take over and that you might have been in the bathroom.”

Blaine has this weird thing about going into the women’s bathroom. I think he’s afraid to see a girl naked, which is weird but makes sense considering he prefers penis.

“He’s still by the gate. Just hold out a bit longer. I’ll let you know when it’s safe.”

The line goes silent and we wait for Gabbie’s signal. Two minutes pass without a word, not even the static of the talkie. 

Four minutes.

Five.

No one says a word the entire time, we’re all too on edge to even make a sudden movement.

But then there’s a sound that causes all of us to be pulled out of our weird state of silence. It’s a low hum behind us, sounds of gravel being pressed further into the ground. I look back to see a car, its headlights off, heading for us. It’s too dark to see who’s driving, but they’re moving the car slow and steady, as if they’re worried of getting caught, too.

“Scabs?” Andrew asks, leaning towards the back window.

“That’s Trevor!” Liza whisper-shouts, opening the car door without warning and heading to the slow moving car. Everyone follows suit, climbing out of the van one by one.

Sure enough, Trevor was in the car behind the wheel, gripping it so tight, his knuckles were white. He looks shaken, like he’s seen a ghost.

Keeping quiet, we all approach the car as he puts it in park and gets out.

“Oh my god, Trev,” Liza whispers loudly, pulling him into a hug. “Where the hell did you go?”

“Alexis had a plan. She didn’t tell me the details of it, but she said not to worry and to stay out of sight. When I saw the Scabs take her, I almost bolted, but she seemed determined about something, so I stayed back and waited.”

“How did you leave without detection?” Emmett asks.

“Something happened. There were guys-”

“Guys, now’s the time to come back. Hurry,” Gabbie’s hushed voice says through the talkie.

“We can discuss later. Let’s get moving,” David tells everyone. 

We decide to leave the van out here so Blaine wouldn’t be suspicious seeing it back all of the sudden. 

Slowly, we approach the gate as quietly as possible. Gabbie is watching, looking down at us as we near. When she sees us come into sight, she nods her head back, signalling someone to open the gate. It opens slowly and surprisingly quiet as well.

Axel is the one who opens it. He’s not one to snitch, I know that for sure.

“Thanks,” I whisper to him. 

“He hasn’t check your cabin. You can all go there,” he says to me quietly.

We all nod and head off into the direction of my and Alexis’s cabin and I immediately look at Trevor, who still looks really worried. I need to ask him about what happened back at the sanctuary.

The six of us make it to our cabin, still trying to be as quiet as possible as we file into the door. Since we’re on the far side of the camp, once we’re inside, we no longer have to worry about being heard.

“He’s back in his own cabin,” Gabbie’s voice says through the talkie. “You guys are clear.”

“Fuck,” David says in relief as he falls to the floor with a smile. “Jesus christ, that was almost a shitshow.”

“I can’t believe we pulled that off,” Emmett retorts, flinging himself on Alexis’s bed.

I look over at Trevor. He’s paler than usual. His eyes are focused on the ragged rug in the middle of the floor.

“I thought for sure we were going to get caught,” Andrew pants.

“Trevor,” I say quietly. He doesn’t look up at me. The others come down from their highs and look at him too. “What happened after we left?”

“They were raided,” he whispers. 

Finally he looks up at us. “I was hiding. I was lucky they didn’t see me, they would have killed me.”

“Who?” Liza asks.

“They were calling them the Traitors.”

“The Scabs were?” Emmett pipes in. Trevor just nodded.

“What did they do? The Traitors?” I ask.

“They just started killing everyone. One of those twins, the one with longer hair-”

“Ethan,” I say quickly. I’m not sure why.

“Yeah. He ran to the cabin they took Alexis to. He had a knife with him. I left after that. I didn’t see who the Traitors were and I didn’t want to watch them kill everyone.”

“You think this Ethan guy killed Alexis?” Liza asks, her voice frail. 

“I don’t know. What was weird was that he looked scared. Like… I don’t know. He didn’t look like a killer.” Trevor shakes his head.

“Guys, we’ve got company,” Gabbie’s voice says. I grab the talkie from Emmett.

“Who?”

“Holy shit,” her quiet voice says. “Alexis?”

Liza looks at me frantically.

Without a second thought, we run out the door, the six of us not caring who hears or even if Blaine comes out his cabin door. We run to the gate where Axel is opening it back up to reveal none other than Alexis. Gabbie is climbing down the tower, joining us as we meet up with Alexis.

One look at her and I’m already worried. Her hair is battered, her eyebrow is swollen and her wrists have rash marks on them. They must’ve tied her up in that cabin.

“Oh my god, what happened?” Andrew asks, examining her wounds.

“I’m fine,” she replies quietly, pushing him away slightly, but not with any attempt to keep him from making sure she really is okay.

Then I see him.

Ethan walks through the gate, holding his bicep as blood trickles from a wound. He’s walking with a limp and his shirt has multiple rips in it. Not only does he look beat up, he looks desperate. He looks at me immediately, his hazel eyes almost begging me for something, for what, I don’t know.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Emmett asks, stepping closer to him. Alexis stops him.

“He saved me.”

Just then Grayson, the other twin, walks through the door, the short lanky guy slung over his shoulders, unconscious.

“He needs medical help,” Grayson says.

“Why should we help you?” David asks, fuming. “You dicks literally just held us captive not an hour ago and now you’re asking for our help?”

“He saved me, David,” Alexis says, her voice louder than before. “I was in the line of fire and Ethan jumped in front of me.”

I look at his arm, the blood dripping from it, landing on the rock below.

“I’m alive because of him.”

“Why?”

Everyone looks at me, shocked to hear me speak suddenly and to see that I’m looking right at Ethan.

“Why did you save her?” I ask. It should be a simple question and there was an answer already bobbing around in my head. “Because she’s useful, right? She has a place she can take you for food and shelter and water and if you saved her, that could all be yours, too. Right?” I’m yelling now.

He’s silent, looking at me.

“These Traitors, they raided your sanctuary and you knew you wouldn’t have one unless you saved her. That’s why you did it.” It’s no longer a question, it’s a fact.

“Please-”

“Save it,” I cut him off. “Get out of our camp.”

I turn to walk away, but Liza’s voice stops me.

“Y/N, they’re wounded really bad.”

I’m surprised she’s defending them, considering she was almost chopped to pieces earlier.

I turn back to look at her. “I don’t give a shit.” Then I continue to walk away, not caring to look back, not even when I hear Gabbie tell Axel to watch the gate while she takes them to the infirmary. Whatever. I can just make sure I kick them out by morning.

“Y/N, stop,” Alexis says behind me. She’s following me as I walk to the pool. I kick off my shoes and sit at the edge, dipping my feet into the water. I hear Alexis sigh before she sits down next to me, but she crosses her legs underneath her.

“He was going to swing a fucking axe at Liza.”

She sighs, not trying to defend him again.

“He killed Ben.”

“I’m sure you won’t believe me, but I know he didn’t kill him.”

“You saw his head.”

“Ethan didn’t know where his head was,” she says quietly.

I look over at her, my eyebrows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“Sure, he saved me, but it’s not like I immediately trusted him. Once we took the car and got out, making sure no Traitors were following us, I asked him about Ben. I was mad and wanted to understand why he would do that. He said his friend Jack came back to the camp with a dead cannibal, or what he thought was a cannibal. Ethan was suspicious right away that Jack killed him out of spite, that he was never a cannibal. So Ethan asked him about it and he freaked out saying it was bullshit that he didn’t trust him. So Ethan gave him a day to leave. When Jack left, he took a bunch of Scabs with him and the cannibal’s head was gone.”

I try to process this new information.

“Ethan was sure Jack and the Traitors were watching them. They left the Harvey house after writing ‘SCABS’ in the pool. They didn’t know the head was there when we showed up. Then you mentioned Ben, and he knew it had to have been the Traitors.”

“But how did they know Ben was one of our people?” I ask. 

“Stupid coincidence I guess,” she answers quietly. 

We sit in silence for a few minutes, my mind whirring about whether or not I could trust Ethan and his brother. What if more Scabs show up, expecting us to take them in just because we took these three in?

“And, if it counts for anything, Ethan also said he was never actually going to swing the axe at Liza. He wasn’t actually going to hit her or anything.”

“And you believed him?”

“He said he did it to get one of you to talk. He wanted to see which one of you was brave enough to try to stop him if he was really going to do it.”

My mind goes back to the sanctuary, to the moment he was about to swing at Liza. That moment happened so fast, but seemed to take forever at the same time. Moments before, he’d been taunting me, daring me to stand up to him. Maybe he really wanted me to stop him like Alexis is saying.

“He was really glad it was you, by the way.”

I look over at her. She’s smiling at me. 

Still not sure what to think, I gently glide my foot through the water, not responding. Just thinking.

“I’m not letting them leave until they’re well. If, by the time they’re better and healed and strong enough to go back out on their own, you still want to kick them out, I won’t stop you. But I’m a firm believer in the fact that everyone deserves a chance. No matter how malicious you think someone is.”

With that, she stands and starts to walk away. Then I remember something.

“Hey Lex.” She turns to look at me. “What was your plan? Trevor mentioned you said you had one.”

She smiles at me. “My plan was fate and praying to God for good luck.” Then she walks away.

I don’t know who Ethan is, and I have no idea how I’m supposed to trust him without questioning him.

But if Alexis can give him a chance, then so can I.


	3. Chapter 3

Tiny trickles of sunlight are settling upon camp as dawn approaches.  Blaine is still in bed, thankfully having never gotten up again last night after Ethan and the other Scabs showed up.  Trevor said he would clean up and go to Blaine’s cabin, allowing us enough time to stitch up the Scabs and send them on their way, although I’m not sure how that’s going to go.  

I’m still at the pool, watching the orange glow rise above the waters.  That’s what’s nice about this camp, you can see the sunrise clearly from any place.  Mine and Alexis’s cabin is the best, and she’s probably sitting on the porch right now,  _ Gone With the Wind _ in her hand, basking in the morning sunlight with a small smile.  She reminds me a lot of Ponyboy Curtis, only female and less socially awkward.

Once I decide I’ve spent enough time with my toes submerged in the water, I stand up, grabbing my shoes, and head towards the front gate.  Liza and Gabbie are both there this morning, and so is Grayson, to my disdain.

“Are you trying to get kicked out?” I ask when he looks at me.  He doesn’t say anything in response, just looks at Liza as if he’s not sure what to say.  He probably isn’t.

“I told Trevor to signal us when Blaine’s up.  None of the camp will be awake for hours, anyways, so I figured why not put him to use?” Liza says.

“What about the other two?”

“Ethan lost a lot of blood.  He’s still in the infirmary,” Liza answers, looking at Grayson.

“And Aaron’s still unconscious, too,” he tells me.  At least short and lanky has a name now.

“What about you?” I ask, eyeing him.  He doesn’t look too battered, and I’m wondering if that’s because he’s good at avoiding getting hurt or maybe the Traitors chose not to hurt him in particular.  If the latter is true, he can’t be trusted.

He doesn’t answer, just turns around and lifts his shirt.  His back is covered in bandages, including one that’s wrapped completely around his torso.  There’s splotches of blood on each bandage.

“Burns and cuts,” he says, answering my unasked question.  “Traitor tossed me into a burn pit.  I’ll manage though.”  He lowers his shirt back down.  “Ethan got the brunt of it.”

“How is he?” I hear myself asking.  Nothing prompted the question, I’m not even sure why I care.  The words just came out, I didn’t even think about them.  Can’t take them back now.  Luckily, Grayson doesn’t seem fazed by the question.

“I was in the infirmary a half hour ago to change my bandages.  He was sleeping when I was in there,” he answers with a shrug.

“Blaine alert,” Gabbie warns calmly.  Grayson nods at her, then looks at me again before stalking off to David’s cabin, like he’s already done this before.  And maybe he has.

“David will stay at my cabin until we find a permanent place for them,” Liza says quietly.

“Permanent?” I ask her.

“Y/N-”

“Jesus, you look like shit,” Blaine’s voice says, a few feet away.  He’s talking to me.

“Good morning to you, too.”

“You look like you got seven minutes of sleep.  You alright?” he asks, eyeing me closely.  Ha, seven minutes off.  Try zero.

“Just don’t feel well,” I say with a shrug.  

“Why don’t you go to the infirmary, rest up a bit, yeah?” he tells me with a pat on the shoulder.  “You better?” he asks Liza.

“Turns out I just started my period,” she answers with a shrug.

Blaine grimaces at the mention of her lady bits leaking blood and turns to me, sternly pointing in the direction of the infirmary.

I restrain from rolling my eyes and pad my bare feet toward the building, sneaking a glance at David’s cabin, wondering if Grayson was actually okay to hide out in there.  Any of them, for that matter.  The safest cabin they’d be in would be mine and Alexis’s considering it’s on the edge of the camp and Blaine only ever goes as far as Trevor’s cabin.  It would make sense to let them sleep there.

Jesus, who am I kidding, not five hours ago, I wanted to kill these guys.  Why am I so lenient about them all of a sudden?

I walk up the steps of the infirmary and open the door to reveal Bre, our best nurse and only solace, looking through some papers.

“Hey,” I say, snapping her out of her focused state.

“Hey, Y/N.  Need something?” she says, looking back down at her papers.

“How are they?” I ask, cutting to the chase.

“Aaron should wake up at any moment and Ethan lost too much blood.  Trying to find someone compatible,” she answers without hesitation, motioning to the papers.  She’s always been able to remain calm in drastic situations.  That’s what makes her a great nurse.  “Bleeding is stopped for now, but we wait to long, he won’t ever wake up.”

“What’s his type?”

“O negative.  He can only receive from another O negative and most everyone here is A positive.”

I sigh, knowing I might hate myself for what I’m about to say.

“I’m O negative,” I tell her quietly.

She nods her head as she holds up a piece of paper, mine I’m assuming.  “Yes you are.”  She looks at me pointedly.

“How much does he need?” I ask, setting down my shoes and walking towards her.  She pats on a chair for me to sit on before heading to a cabinet and pulling out gloves, a needle, a tourniquet, and IV bag, and rubbing alcohol.

“I think a pint should do it.  If he needs more later on, you can replenish and donate again.”  She puts her supplies on the table next to us.

I watch her apply the tourniquet to my arm, examining my veins for the best one to stick.

“What happened to Aaron?” I ask as she cleanses my arm with the alcohol.

“He was hit over the head pretty hard.  Definitely has a concussion and his wrist is broken beyond repair.”  Bre prepares the needle and attaches it to the empty IV bag, placing it on the ground.  “When he wakes up, he will most likely have forgotten what happened.”

I flinch slightly when she sticks me, but once it’s in and the blood is running through the rubber tube, I’m okay.

“Ethan?”

“Had to remove a bullet from his arm,” she starts, shaking her head and adjusting her glasses.  “I didn’t have all the proper equipment or sedatives, so the brave boy let me remove it while he was conscious.  But once it was out and I was about to stitch him up, he went out cold.  Crazy kid.  He’ll be alright, though, when he gets some more blood back in him.”

I nod, trying to listen, but as I watch my blood flow out of me, I can feel my head become lighter.

“Don’t you go passing out on me.  Just a little bit more,” Bre says, patting my cheek gently.  I probably should have told her I haven’t eaten since dinner last night and I didn’t sleep at all since yesterday morning.  

A minute or so later, she takes the needle out of my arm, bandaging it up.  I’m about to stand before she slumps me back down into the chair.

“Sit.  You need to replenish,” she says, walking to a cupboard and taking out an expired bag of cheez-its.  Then she saunters to the fridge and pulls out a grape gatorade.  Not my favorite flavor, but it’s not exactly something I have the strength to argue about.

I gingerly eat the cheez-its as I watch her move around the room.  She’s swift and cool and focused at all times.  I always am tempted to ask her to join Trevor and I on runs, see what she’s made of outside the camp, but Blaine never allows it.  

Bre opens the door on the far corner of the room, stepping through it with my blood in her hand.  I feel useless sitting here, but my head is light and my toes are numb.  If I try to stand, I’ll probably just fall over, even more useless.

Luckily, I’m not alone for long since the front door I came in through a few minutes ago opens.  But as soon as I realize who it is, my relief washes away.  Blaine cuts the room, his eyes darting all over the place, in search of something.  My body instantly heats up with nervousness and I’m worried he already knows about the two unconscious boys in the rooms beyond us.

“Feeling better yet?” he asks, continuing his search.  He doesn’t look at me, thank god.  He begins rifling through Bre’s papers, not bothering to glance over the contents.

I open my mouth to respond, but my throat hitches.  What is he looking for?  

As if he can read my mind, he responds to my unspoken question.  “Where the hell did I put that key?”

“Key?” I ask suddenly.  He doesn’t seem to know about Ethan and Aaron.

“The key to the beemer isn’t with the rest at the gate.  I know I brought it in here a few nights ago.  I must’ve dropped it.”  

He continues to look under papers and folders, moving them to the side, creating a mess in his wake.  He’s slowly making his way to the door in the corner, where Ethan and Aaron are behind.  Shit.

“Did you check your cabin?” I ask, trying to steer him away.

“That’s the first place I checked,” he responds, as if that was obvious.  He finally looks at me, eyeing my arm and the cheez-its and gatorade.  “Bre stick you?”

“Yeah, just a vitals check,” I say quickly, the lie gliding off my tongue.  

He nods, pretending to know exactly what that means before turning back to the door, reaching for the knob.  Before I have a chance to scream out, the door opens, Bre yelping in surprise at the sight of Blaine.

“Oh!”  She’s quick to come through, closing the door shut behind her.  “D-do you need something?”

I internally cringe at her obviousness.  Usually she is so calm, but when there are two - potential - fugitives behind the door that she just so happens to be saving, she buckles a bit, nervousness taking her over.

“I think I left the beemer key in here the other night and I-”

“Yes,” she says quickly, shaking hands rummaging through her pocket.  “I saw it on the floor and picked it up and I put it in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose it or forget where it was, because you know how I can get sometimes-”

Her words are hurried and her sentence runs on, just making her fumbling more obvious.  I can only hope Blaine doesn’t catch on.  

“-just such a clumsy mess, you know.”  She produces a key from her lab coat pocket, shoving it to Blaine before turning him around and pushing him towards the door.  “Y/N might have an infection, You don’t want to be in here to catch it, sir.  Be on your way now.”  Blaine turns to say something, but she slams the door in his face, leaning against it and panting.  “That was close.”

I run a hand over my face, rolling my eyes.  “You’re nuts.”

“He’s the only thing I’m afraid of in this world,” she admits aloud before walking back over to me.

“I don’t get why.  Blaine is the most harmless person I know,” I tell her, uncapping my gatorade and taking a swig.

“It’s his eyes.  It’s what he’s seen, what he’s been through.  When he looks at me, I feel like he’s looking straight through me,” Bre says with the shake of her head.  With a sigh, she plops down on her seat at the only desk in the room.  “He’s seen more heartbreak than anyone in this world.  I can’t imagine the kind of pain and anger he’s holding back, and I’m just scared for the day it all comes pouring out.  His eyes are scarier than any flesh eating cannibal I ever may come across.”  She busies herself, moving her hands to restack the papers Blaine threw around moments ago.

I know enough about Blaine to know that he has a kind heart and a good soul.  I’ve heard the rumors, every tale of how his family died, including a husband, a sister, and son.  I don’t know what of it is true, I’ve never seen pictures of a child in the arms of Blaine and I’ve never seen pictures of gray feminine irises, ones to match Blaine’s.  If he had a sister, a husband, a son at any point in his life, I don’t know.  He’s a reserved man, not for the sake of himself, but for others.  I’ve seen him worried about Trevor, about Gabbie and Liza, and even myself.  Bre’s right in the fact that he has a lot of rage built behind his walls, and I can’t imagine what it would be like if he spilled all his secrets.  He’d probably throw a tantrum, breaking everything in his path.  One time David got really hurt on a run, he was knocked out for days.  Liza cried, but Blaine?  He punched three holes in his cabin wall, breaking his knuckle.  He was furious, at David for getting hurt and at himself for letting it happen.

Suddenly, a cannibal chasing me to my grave seems a lot less scary than Blaine.  Now I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look into his eyes again.

A bell rings and Bre jolts up, heading to the door that conceals the Scabs once again.  Aaron must be up.  Maybe Ethan, but considering the amount of blood was just taken to him, I highly doubt it.

Restless, I stand from my chair, my legs thankfully not failing me.  I make my way to Bre’s desk and look at my paper, the one that matches that of all the occupants of Lakewood.  It lists all our defining factors - things like our birth date, weight upon arrival, allergies, blood type, appearance.  That sort of stuff.  We come to Bre for physicals every month, so Alexis and I have only visited twice since we got here.

My paper says everything I expect it to, listing my changing weight (I’m slowly losing weight - probably due to my workout routine and inevitable canned food diet), my birthday, my hair color.  It’s weird to see myself written down on a piece of paper.

Right below mine is Ethan’s.  Birth date: December 16, 1999.  No Known Allergies.  Blood Type O Negative.  Black hair.  Hazel eyes.

His eyes.

I remember them pretty vividly from the sanctuary.  They were testing, dark, and for a moment, sympathetic.

They were beautiful.

I sigh, shaking my thoughts and look over the other two papers, reading about Grayson and Aaron before Bre steps back into the room.

“He is absolutely nuts,” she mutters to herself.  I look at her with an amused smile.  “He wants to go back to his sanctuary.  Keeps mumbling about important discoveries and research.  He must’ve really hit his head, crazy kid.”

“Maybe we should take them back,” I say with a shrug, continuing to read about Aaron’s appearance.  “If that’s what they want.”  If they want to go back, by all means.  We can’t risk keeping them here anyways.

“He just wants his things, he doesn’t want to  _ go _ back.  That’s personal information, Y/N,” Bre tells me, reaching for the papers in my hand.  I decide not to protest and hand them back to her without a second thought.

“I was just curious who we’re up against.”

“Hun, we aren’t up against them.”  She sighs and begins to file away papers, cleaning up the mess she and Blaine had made.

“So you trust them?  Bre, they held us captive.  He swung an axe at Liza’s head.  They took Alexis hostage.”

“They’ve completely surrendered to us, Y/N.”

This makes me stop.  Why would they raise the white flag when they had the upper hand?  

“The Traitors are who we’re up against,” she continues.  “And having those three here will help us.  They know the Traitors personally, they  _ know _ them, Y/N.   _ That’s _ who we have to worry about.”

She has a point.  If the real threat is the Traitors, a group of guys we know nothing about, then we’re done for.  Sure, we have a few weapons, we probably have more than enough people.  But we’re not trained to fight, not against humans, anyways.  And with three guys who knows how the Traitors’ brains work, then maybe we would have a chance.

But something is still nagging at me.

“Why did only the three of them come back?” I ask.  “Why weren’t there more?  If the Scabs were bombarded like they were, wouldn’t there be more of them here right now?”

“You think Ethan is protecting some Traitors,” she replies, nodding her head, still focusing on cleaning up the messy room.

“Think about it, Bre, there were at least fifteen of them when we were there.  The only way it makes sense that only three of them made it out is if-”

“The rest of them were killed.”

The male voice startles me.  Bre looks up from her work with a slight scowl.  

“You will be dead, too, if you don’t stay in bed,” she says to Ethan, trotting over to him.  She gently helps him to the seat I was in when she was taking my blood.

“Blaine is gone.  All clear,” Gabbie’s voice came in through static from the talkie on Bre’s desk.

“I hate feeling useless.  I couldn’t just hang out in there,” he says through pants.  “Plus Aaron’s giving me a headache.”

“I’ll give you something for that, but you need to rest.  I  _ just _ replenished your blood,” Bre replies, making sure his bandages are all secure, then gapes at his arm.  “Did you take out the IV drip yourself?  God, you Scabs are giving me a headache, too,” she breathes, heading through the door he came from.

I don’t say anything, just stare at my twiddling thumbs.  I don’t trust him.  I can’t.

The only sound in the room is Ethan’s long, panting breaths.  I can feel his eyes on me, so I don’t dare look at him.

“That your gatorade?” he asks.  I don’t respond, just tilt my head a bit.  “Mind if I have some?  Kind of just about died from blood loss, so…”

Restraining from rolling my eyes, I snatch up bottle and hand it to him.  I finally meet his eyes, but they’re looking at my bandaged arm.  Reflexively, I cover it up.

He takes four large gulps of the purple liquid, downing the rest of it in seconds.  Once he finishes, he caps the bottle.  “You donated to me?” he asks, jutting his chin towards my arm.

“I was the only match,” I respond with a shrug.

“Thank you.”

We fall silent again, the tension in the room thick enough to slice through.  Once again, I feel his eyes on me, and I instinctively shrink under his stare.  He breathes a single chuckle, noticing.

“Alexis saved us, you know.”

I look up at him again, this time, his hazel eyes - stunning as I remember - meet mine.  My head starts to feel light again, but I can tell it’s not from blood loss this time.

“We saved her, she saved us in return,” he says.  “We knew she didn’t trust us.  But she was sparing our lives.  That’s why we surrendered.”

I continue my silence.  If I had something to say to him, I would.  But nothing is coming to mind, so I keep my mouth shut.

“They’re all dead.  All of them,” he mutters.  His eyes are glossy, and I can tell he’s hurt.  “The Traitors are out there.  They might not know the three of us are alive, but they know you were all there last night.”

“What?”

Bre chooses now to barge back in, a full first aid kit - more like briefcase - in her hand.  “You don’t want to be trapped in here, fine, but we can’t take you off the IV yet.  You continue to be stubborn, though, and I’m going to have to constrain you.  Y/N, grab a pen and paper.  I’m going to teach you how insert and IV drip.”

* * *

 

An hour later, Ethan is hooked up to an IV in David’s cabin and I’m sitting on my own front porch, mindlessly looking over the notes I took to take care of him.  Bre would do it herself, but Blaine would definitely get suspicious if he knew she was going back and forth from the lab to David’s cabin while David wasn’t even there or hurt for that matter.

My eyes dart over the notes, but I’m not actually reading them.  My mind is reeling about the Traitors and what Ethan said.  He thinks Lakewood is their next move.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he had said as I inserted the IV.  “But I’m sure they’re watching.”

“They’re watch long enough to learn any of your routines,” Grayson pointed out.  “As soon as they’re sure they can do it, they’ll take over.”

“We have to stay one step ahead of them,” Ethan replied with a nod.

“Bre said that Aaron was freaking out about his stuff back at your sanctuary,” I said,  “something about research and discovering?”

Grayson looked at Ethan, his eyebrow twitching.  “We might go back and see what we can scavenge.”

“Jack knew about that shit, too, Gray.  There’s no telling what he already stole,” Ethan responded.

“Discoveries about a cure,” I said to them.  I remember seeing the word scribbled across the paperwork in the cabin I had been in before Ethan took me.

The cabin he’d been watching me in.

“Discoveries might not be the right word.  He was still in the research process.”

“But he was finding a cure?” I asked.

“Trying to,” Ethan replied.  “Trying the key word here.  But he’s been unsuccessful too many times.”

An image of jar with a greenish hand inside of it popped into my mind, a label reading ‘025H’ on it.  “Twenty five times to be exact,” I said.

“He wasn’t done with that test,” Grayson quickly spoke.  

“Grayson’s right,” I told Ethan, surprising even myself.  “We should go back and see if there’s anything left of Aaron’s research.  If he thinks he can find a cure then we should-”

“No,” Ethan all but shouted, making Grayson and I both jump.  “It is way too risky.  The Traitors could be watching the perimeter of this camp as we speak and as long as I am confined in this cabin, neither you or Aaron are leaving the gate,” he said sternly to Grayson.  Then his eyes trailed to me.  “And I would prefer if you didn’t either.”

That conversation seems ages away even though it happened less than an hour ago.  The Traitors probably watch Blaine leave this morning if Ethan is right.

“Did you ever eat breakfast?” Alexis says, coming up behind me.  I remember the stale cheez its and gross gatorade.

“Yes,” I tell her, convincing myself it was technically the truth.  “I hope you did.”

“Of course I did.  I eat seven meals a day, you know this,” she jokes, sitting down next to me.  Her eyes scan over the notes in my hands.  “I think David’s cabin is a bit too close to the front gate to keep them there.”

“Well Trevor’s is too close to Blaine’s and Andrew’s and Emmett’s cabin is too close to the kid’s quarters.  That leaves David’s or Gabbie’s and I don’t think she’s okay rooming with a couple strangers.”

“Ours,” she says, looking at me expectantly.

I narrow my eyes at her.  “No.”

“We can move in with Gabbie,” she continues, tilting her head.  I just look at her for a couple moments, wanting to shake my head. 

“I’m not giving up this cabin.”  Yes, I’m being stubborn, but sometimes, a girl has got to be selfish.  This cabin has a beautiful view of the lake and it’s the only thing that reminds me that despite how fucked up this world is, there is still some beauty in it.  I can’t let that go.

“You don’t have to.  Gabbie and I can move into David's cabin, Grayson and Aaron can move into Gabbie’s and then Ethan-”

“Absolutely not.”  Is she actually crazy?  “I am not bunking with Ethan.”

She presses her lips together, fighting a smile.  “Gabbie, Grayson and I already discussed all this.  He said Ethan would most likely want to room with you.”

I fight the urge to gag and stand up, frustration taking over.  “Why?  So he can constantly drive me nuts?  No way.”

“Drive you what?” she asks, looking up at me with a grin.

“Don’t.”

“You only say ‘drive you nuts’ about the people you like.  If you didn’t like him, you would have said ‘crazy’ or ‘insane’,” she points out, standing up to face me.  “So what is it?  His biceps?  His eyes?”  Her eyebrows raised themselves suggestively.  “His incredibly chiseled jawline?”

“How about none of the above?”

“Y/N, it’s going to be okay, now you can hump each other in the privacy of your own cabin!”

“I am not bunking with Ethan,” I say sternly, ignoring her derogatory remark.

Her smile was mischievous, the only smile I’ve grown weary of when Alexis wears it.  “It’s a bit too late for that.”  Then she’s looking behind me.

I turn, seeing exactly what I was hoping I wouldn’t.  Grayson and Ethan are walking towards us, led by Gabbie, Ethan’s arms around their shoulders to be held upright.  Grayson has the first aid kit in his other hand and Andrew is walking behind them carrying the IV equipment and with a snarl on his face.  At least someone is as displeased as I am to be helping them out.

Ethan smirks as they approach.  “Hey roomie.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and the gang need to retrieve some important supplies and documents from the same sanctuary that Ethan and the Scabs had held you captive. They're dire to your situation, but Ethan is adamant about keeping you inside the camp.
> 
> You just need a plan to make sure he doesn't find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mature content and language (14+). Graphic content.

“I still don’t trust them,” Andrew says as he continues to pace in front of me.

Emmett and I are sitting on the porch steps on their cabin. To our left, the kids’ quarters is a ruckus, children running around and shouting as they play tag and duck-duck-goose, all completely naive to the fact that we have three total strangers in the perimeter who were once part of a group that liked to prey on us.

“Everyone else seems to. Alexis especially, and we all know she doesn’t warm up to just anyone,” I tell him, leaning my chin on my palm. “I’m just not happy about my living situation.”

“You don’t have to live there you know?”

“I am  _not_  giving up  _my_  cabin.” It took a lot of convincing from Gabbie and Alexis, but I’m a sucker for my girls and they managed to get me to agree to let Ethan stay there.

“Do you think they have a special skin regimen?” Emmett asks, completely off topic as usual. Andrew just glowers at him. “What? Grayson’s face is, like, baby butt smooth.”

Andrew and I ignore him, also as usual.

“I don’t want to trust them either, but he seemed serious about his concerns and apologies,” I say with a shrug. As much as I hate to admit it, I know I saw sincerity in Ethan’s eyes when he was talking about saving Alexis and also the Traitors. Even more scary, I saw the actual worry in his features when I mentioned we needed to go back to the sanctuary.”

“So you do trust him?” Andrew asks, halting his restless feet. He doesn’t sound accusatory, just defeated.

“Not necessarily. But I do believe everything he’s said.”

“I wonder if they use a special soap-”

“Emmett! Seriously,” Andrew yells at his roommate. With a sigh, he rolls his eyes and sits on the other side of me. After a long silence, he finally speaks again. “What do we do?”

I don’t tell him that I don’t know, but it’s all I’m thinking. Of course, I don’t want to trust Ethan and his entourage, but they are the best assets we have right now. I roll my eyes in utter annoyance.

“Why is everyone looking to me to make the decisions. Who died to make me queen?” I say in frustration, standing up. Luckily, the sound of laughing children and hollering parents are all but drowning out this conversation.

“You’re just the best leader here. You know that.” Andrew stands up and saunters towards me. I see his hand reach out to touch my arm, but he must think better of it, because it drops to his side before he makes contact. “Y/N. You’re a really strong person. You stood up to Ethan when he held us captive. Do you think any of us would have done that? Hell, David didn’t even do it, and it was  _his_  girlfriend that was about to take the axe. The reason we look to you for the next step is because we know you won’t hold anything back. We trust your judgement, even if it’s a little reckless sometimes, because we know that, even if something goes wrong, more things will go right.”

Although flattered by his small speech, I can’t help but feel a tinge of bitterness. He’s right, there is almost always something that goes wrong. Like how we were captured in the sanctuary. And how Alexis was held hostage.

But he was also right about my bravery, even if that sounds narcissistic. I  _did_  stand up to Ethan. He didn’t scare me like he did the others. I don’t know why, but he hadn’t felt as threatening as he was trying to come across when they had us captive.

“We look to you because you’re a natural born leader. So I’m going to ask you again. What do we do now?” Andrew asks, looking at me expectantly. Where he sees bravery in my eyes, I see determination in his.

Thinking for only a few seconds, I nod my head.

“Okay. I know what we need to do.”

* * *

“You are absolutely insane.”

Andrew, Emmett and I were the only three who decided to skip dinner tonight. Ethan, Grayson and Aaron technically couldn’t go either, but Liza was compliant at bringing them all food to the cabins so they wouldn’t starve. She’s told me I should probably just take Ethan’s myself since he’s staying in my cabin, but… Yeah.

“You’re the one who said you trust my judgement,” I remind Andrew as we quickly make our way to Bre’s office.  Grayson had insisted on coming with us, but it was too risky, even more than what we are about to do.

“Yes, but this is on another level. What I’m trusting is that you know what you’re doing. And that’s a lot of scary trust to be putting into you right now,” he whispers.

Ignoring him, I round the corner of the last cabin at the front of the camp that leads directly to the infirmary.

“I’m all about being rebellious, but don’t you need to have some sort of licence to use sedatives on a patient?” Emmett asks as we approach the building.

“Usually, yes. But considering we’re in the middle of a cannibalistic apocalypse right now and the laws of the land are pretty much moot at the moment, I’m not too worried about it,” I tell him.

We make it to the infirmary a few seconds later, and to my dismay, Bre’s out to dinner sign is nowhere to be found. As quiet as I can, I tiptoe to the door and hold my head against it, listening for any type of movement. Sure enough, there is a small voice muttering to itself and papers rustling around. Bre was either back already from dinner, or she hadn’t left yet.

“Okay, plan B.”

“I thought this was plan B,” Emmett whispered.

“Emmett, distract Bre. Just keep her in her office.” I hop off the porch and grab Andrew’s arm, walking him toward the side of the building.

“But how do I-”

Ignoring him, Andrew and I round the side of the infirmary, where I know there’s a window leading to her supply room. Standing under it, I glance at Andrew.

“Hoist me up,” I say, crouching, ready to jump if I have to.

“Y/N.”

“This isn’t going to work if you don’t help me. Bre will never give any of us clearance to use her supplies, especially the drugs. We need that sedative.”

“Plan C: I take him out with my fist,” he suggests, crossing his arms.

“Andrew.” My voice is stern now.

We hold a small staring contest for a few seconds, both of us look lethal. After the silence becomes to much for him, he rolls his eyes and twines his fingers together, creating a step for me.

“I swear this is insane.”

Seven times he’s said that since I suggested this plan. Aaron thought it was genius. I like that kid.

I prop my foot into his hands and use my other foot to give myself enough momentum to jump to the window sill, which is at least three heads above me. My hands almost fail me as they brush the wooden sill, but I catch myself. Under me, Andrew curses.

I gently push the window upwards, testing its give. It opens with ease.

“Okay, a little higher,” I whisper-yell down to him. He complies, pushing my foot up until his hands are at his own stomach. I’m high enough now that I can fold myself over into the supply room and push myself in using the wall. I feel my foot leave his hand as I gently tumble into the room, rolling myself over to lessen the blow.  The hard floor smacks loud as my butt hits it. That will leave a bruise.

With a silent breath, I hurdle myself to the other side of the room, bracing myself on the wall next to the door. If anyone were to open it, I would be hidden.

“-was that?” I hear Bre’s voice say from her office. There are steps making their way to me, but Emmett begins coughing - no, hacking. He sounds like he’s choking.

I refrain from rolling my eyes as I listen for the steps retreating to Emmett. Bre voice is rushed and worried, wondering if he was okay. This is my chance.

Quickly, I move from the wall to the cabinet on the right side of the room. I know this is where she keeps all the drugs for IV drips and shots, so the anesthetic I’m looking for should be in here. The matter of finding it is the problem. I can barely remember the name of what Aaron told me to grab. There was thio-something-or-another and metho-what’s-it-called.

I should really start writing stuff down when it comes to diabolical plans - if this is even considered ‘diabolical’.

The cabinet is filled with numerous vials with hand-made labels on them. I look for anything starting with ‘thio’- and ‘metho-’. It doesn’t seem to help though, because there are at least seven different vials starting with each, and they are all different. When I see ‘methohexital’ on one of them, the name rings a bell and I grab it, shoving it into my pocket. Then, considering the drug has the word ‘meth’ in it, and that kind of scares me a little, I grab three of the vials containing ‘thio-’ drugs and toss them into my pocket as well. I have no idea if any of them are the right one, but whatever.

Emmett is still hacking as I make my way back to the window. Not the type of distraction I was hoping for, but it’s working, so I can’t complain.

Andrew is peering up at me as I look out. Without having to be told, he holds his arms out in front of him and bend his knees slightly, ready to catch me if need be. Hurrying, but still trying to be quiet, I throw one leg over the window sill, then the other so I’m sitting on it. Being afraid of heights isn’t really helping me in this situation, but I can hear Bre’s rushed voice coming toward the door, so I clench my eyes shut and drop from the sill, bending my knees slightly. Andrew manages to catch me by my hips, but my butt still lands rather hard on the ground. That’s really not going to feel good in the morning.

“C’mon,” he whispers quickly as he hauls me to my feet. Bre’s voice is loud and clear above us, having entered the supply room right after my fall.

On light feet, we sprint behind the infirmary, out of the line of sight from the window. We press our backs against the thick logs of the building, silently panting from the adrenaline. Bre’s voice is boisterous and carries all the way to us.

“-this window. I could have sworn I closed it. It’s not good to let in the air in case-”

The now closed windows cuts off her voice.

Andrew rolls his eyes as he pants, looking over at me. “You’re insane.” That’s number eight.

I just smile back at him.

* * *

“Jesus, how many vials did you grab?” Aaron asks. He’s sitting at the desk in Gabbie’s cabin - or, his and Grayson’s cabin now. His eyes dart over all of the drugs on his desk, inspecting each name. I can tell there’s a couple that he’s worried about, because he carefully sets them aside. I have a small pang of sympathy as he struggles with his left arm in its sling and a bandage wrapped completely around his head. I’m still amazed at how quickly he’s healing though.

“I don’t speak gibberish, alright. They all looked the same and there were so many. I forgot the names,” I tell him, remembering his orders before we left. He gave me two names - two words that didn’t sound English to me at the time. “At least I remembered one when I saw it.”

“Methohexital. This should do it,” he says, holding up the vial, the only name that didn’t make him shudder at the thought of inserting it into Ethan’s IV drip. “You might find a time to return these other drugs. I’m not sure we will need to use them… Hopefully ever.”

“We will discuss that when we get to it. Let’s focus on the Scab,” Andrew says, crossing his arms. I can see Grayson rolls his eyes from the corner of the room, matching Andrew’s stance as he squares his shoulders and crosses his arms.

“You’re talking to two of them, you know?” Emmett reminds him, leaning back on the only sofa in the room.  His feet are propped up on the opposite end and his hands are folded behind his head. It’s ironic how he’s so calm in front of Grayson, who not twenty four hours before had almost broken his nose in his sanctuary.

“We have names,” Grayson growls, sneering at Emmett who holds his hand up in defense.

“Hey, we’re on the same team now, no need to injure me again,” he replies.

“Then maybe we should focus on the task at hand.”

“I’m perfectly focused.  _You’re_  the one off track here.” Emmett’s smiling now, almost teasing.

“The only track I’m about to be on is my fist towards your face if you don’t-”

“HEY!”

Aaron’s usually small voice carries through the room, taking everyone off guard. For such a small person, he’s fierce.

“Nothing is going to work if we can’t get along for two seconds! Emmett, stop acting childish.” Grayson smirks while Emmett gasps, but Aaron isn’t quite finished. “And Gray, get your head out of your ass. We have a lot at stake here and we need to be civil.” Now Grayson scowls. “And you,” Aaron continues, turning to Andrew. “I get that we didn’t get off on the right foot, but we’re here now, and as much as you don’t like it, we’re all on the same side. Now, I’m just as hesitant as you are, but I trust Ethan with my life and he thinks it’s in our best interest to be here. You don’t have to like us or trust us for that matter, but that won’t change anything.”

Everyone but Grayson gapes at him, surprised by his sudden sternness.

“The Traitors are a threat to us.  _All_  of us. They defied their sanctuary and they killed one of  _your_  men.” He looks at me, a quiet apology laced in his eyes. “They knew about my lab, but they didn’t know about my progress, and if they do, they can use it against us. We have to go back and see what we can find before they do.”

“This research,” Andrew starts, all the malice from his voice vanished. “What exactly is it? You said you were looking for a cure?”

“That was the idea when I started my research, yes. I’ve been looking for a way to reverse the disease after the host has already expired.”

“You mean once they’re no longer human?” I ask.

“Unfortunately, yes. That was as far as my research made it. I would take spare cannibal parts before they were killed and test for any possible way to…  _undo_  the disease, to put it simply.”

“What about this revelation you had?” Andrew asks. He seems more curious now and less annoyed.

“Well, on my last trial, one of our men had been bitten. We knew he didn’t have long before…” He trials off, but everyone knows what he’s thinking. “He told me to use him for the research.”

“Same tests, but on a live victim?” Emmett asks, eyes widened.

Aaron nods. “I was able to work fast enough with a couple of his fingers and his opposite hand.”

I flinch. This man - or boy, however old he was - gave his body up for research. They probably had to amputate him while he was still alive and awake. Any type of drug in his system probably would have affected the results.

“Then you guys showed up right before I had the chance to see if it worked. That’s why I need you guys to go back, to check if there is anything left in my lab. Even if the body parts are gone, you can get all the paperwork you find, if any. I had all my findings and recipes in there. Grayson knows where to find it all.”

“Recipes?” Andrew asks.

“The formulas and blueprints,” Aaron confirms. “Basically a prescription. That’s why there were so many vials. I kept altering the formula as needed to see what worked and what didn’t. Obviously, up until Stephen was bitten, I hadn’t found a recipe that worked yet.”

I almost grimace at the mention of the unknown Scab that lost his life for the help of research. I keep forgetting that everyone had a life before all this. Ben was a friend of ours, and he died. Stephen was a friend of the Scabs, and he died too. Both went in painful ways, and both were still just people, trying to survive, like everyone else.

“So the recipes that didn’t work. You think that they were unsuccessful because the person - the host was already dead?” I ask, the words like bile in my mouth.

“I think so. The formula was acting differently on live flesh.” Even Aaron flinches at the thought of his old friend, who he probably had to amputate himself.

“What if those vials are gone?” Andrew asks.

“Then we start over. It will be easier to do if I have the recipes though.”

I blink. “That means…”

Aaron nods, his eyes drooped. He looks sad, but hopeful. “If we want to find a cure on a live victim, we need to have a live victim willing to help.”

“But they have to be infected?” Emmett chimes in.

“Yes. They have to have been scratched or bitten. The virus needs to be inside them in order for correct readings. And they will still have to be alive when we…” He stops, probably not wanting to add ‘cut off their body parts’.

Andrew runs a hand down his face. “So you’re saying that someone is going to have to sacrifice themselves in order to run your tests, and then if your ‘ _recipe_ ’ is unsuccessful, they’re just going to die anyway?”

“No one has to sacrifice themselves. Hell, if Stephen’s vials are still there, we won’t even have to wait for something bad to happen.”

“That’s our other option? Just wait for someone to get bitten or scratched?” Andrew’s voice is rising, but I don’t think he notices.

“It’s the only way to continue the research.”

“Why is this research so important? Yes, it can possibly create a cure, but it won’t help the people we’re most likely to lose in the process.”

“You don’t understand-”

“No, I guess I don’t,” Andrew spits. “I don’t understand why it’s okay to kill your friends for the sake of something that may or may not work. I don’t understand why people have to die in order for others to live.”

“Have you never heard of war before?”

“Emmett, seriously. Shut up.” Andrew clenches his eyes shut for a few seconds before he opens them again, focusing on Aaron. “Why can’t we just come to terms with the inevitable? People become cannibals. It’s just how it is now. Why do we need to fight it when it’s impossible to?”

Aaron seems to consider the question for a moment. But he shakes his head and looks dead into Andrew’s eyes. “If those blueprint get into the wrong hands, we could be looking at a more dangerous situation.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Jack is smart. He’s not a genius by any means, but I’m willing to bet that if he gets to those recipes before we do, he will figure out how to alter them to do something even more dangerous.”

“Like what?” Andrew asks, suddenly curious again.

“Before he betrayed us, Jack liked to talk about creating mutants out of the cannibals. He always asked if there was a way to spread the disease faster, and without having to be bitten or scratched. I always thought he sounded crazy and I ignored his suggestions for the most part. He said we could use it to our advantage, that the world around the sanctuary would be infected while we weren’t. One day while I was conducting an experiment, he came in and asked if he could watch. Not thinking anything of it, I agreed and at one point, he spilled a vile of one of the steroids I’d been using into one of my test jars. I obviously made him leave, but then I noticed the change in the finger inside that jar. It turned black in the matter of minutes. I think he purposely spilled the steroid in there to conduct his own experiment. He knows how to spread the disease quickly, and I have no doubt that if he continues to do his own research, he’ll find a way to create an even bigger problem out of the cannibals. And we will be his first targets.”

Silence plagues the room. No one wants to be the first to speak, weighing our options. If the blueprints - recipes, whatever - are still there, we can bring them back here and Aaron can continue his research. If they’re gone, this Jack guy has them and we have who knows how much time before he creates his own recipe in order to create mutants out of the cannibals. Maybe Aaron can find or create some type of antidote in case that were to happen, but we would have to relocate in order to preserve our safety. Jack would come straight for us.

“Let’s not think too far ahead yet,” Grayson finally speaks. His gruff voice almost knocks me off my feet, I’d forgotten he was even here in the first place. He’s looking at me now. “You can get the sedative in Ethan’s IV drip?”

I nod.

“Then let’s get this show on the road.”

* * *

The vial is hot in my pocket, and it feels as if it’s burning a hole in my shorts. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I’ve been eager to shut Ethan up since he moved into my cabin, but suddenly guilt is soaring through my body as I approach my safe haven, the cabin I’ve come to call home.

I walk up the steps, pausing at the door for a moment before taking a deep breath and entering. Ethan in lying on his bed, looking bored as he reads Alexis’s novel ‘ _The Grapes of Wrath_ ’. When he hears the door open, he looks up, a smirk approaching his features.

“Couldn’t stay away much longer, could you?”

I swallow a gag and roll my eyes. “Did you eat dinner?” I ask, keeping my composure. The giant first aid kit that Bre had given me for everything I would need to take care of Ethan is sitting on the chest of drawers at the end on my bed. I make my way over to it, making sure to turn my back to Ethan as I reach into my pocket to grab the sedative. Aaron said to ask if Ethan had eaten yet, saying food in his system might alter how long he’d be out for.

“Nah, not yet. But I’m starving. Mind making a run for me?” Ethan asks. I can feel his eyes on my backside as I unzip the kit and pretend to rustle around in it.

“After I fix your drip. Bre said it’s better change it out after you’ve fasted.” I’m making this up as I go, but I gotta say, I’m pretty convincing.

Ethan groans, and I don’t have to look at him to know he’s rolling his eyes. Finally, I turn back to him, holding up the vial with the sedative, pretending I just retrieved it from the kit.

“I will bring you food after. I promise,” I tell him with a smile. He rolls his eyes again, but he also smiles.

I make my way to his bed, checking the drip before carefully uncapping the vial. My hand are surprisingly steady as I fidget with the IV bag.

“Have you eaten?” he asks suddenly. It catches me off guard, and I almost spill the sedative. I finally look at him, and he’s staring up at me with those hazel eyes, surprisingly warm and laced with sincerity.

“Uh, no, not yet,” I answer honestly. I could tell him I have, so he wouldn’t be looking at me with this weird worry, but something compels me to tell him the truth. “I’ve been at the infirmary with Emmett today. He was having a hacking fit and we just wanted to make sure he was alright.”

I hurry to screw the vial into the drip, letting it drain into the bag before my hands finally decide to fail me.

“Maybe we could eat together then?”

He’s looking at me again, a different look in his eyes this time. They’re glinting with what looks like curiosity and - I swear to god - hope.

“I’d rather die from whatever Emmett has,” I reply with a wink, only half joking. Ethan takes it as a joke and laughs. The sound strangely squeezes at my insides, making my stomach drop a bit.

Weird.

“Just make sure you eat something,” he says suddenly, yawning immediately after. “Even if it’s not with me.” He curls his bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout and yawns again. This sedative is working faster than I thought it would.

“Big bad Scab concerned about measly old me?” I ask teasingly, watching as Ethan’s eyes start to droop.

“Measly old you,” he whispers with a tired smile before his lashes flutter closed completely.

I watch for a second, listening to his breathing as it slows down a bit and fills the room. It’s so quiet, I can even hear my own heart beating, a bit rapidly.

Shaking my head, I recap the vial and make my way back over to the kit, placing it inside. I head over to my closet, which now also holds a few of David’s old clothes for Ethan. My heart shutters at the sight of Ethan’s old, dirty clothes on the floor of the closet, blood-stained and ripped. I look back at him for a moment, studying his sleeping figure, the bandage wrapped around his left bicep, a small, fabric brace around his right ankle with his leg propped up, uncovered. I sigh before grabbing a bag and closing the closet, making my way back to his bed.

I have no idea what compels me to do this, but I carefully lift his leg from the end of the bed, placing an extra pillow underneath it to see that it rests comfortably. Then I take an extra blanket from my bed and wrap it around the exposed flesh of his leg.

Stepping back to examine my work, I give myself a single nod before making my way out the door, not daring to look back.

* * *

Grayson is driving while I’m squeezed in between him and Andrew. David, Alexis, and Emmett are crammed in the backseat, each with an empty bag in their laps. The trunk has our guns in it.

The ride is silent as we make our way to the sanctuary. It’s dark out now, and Liza and Trevor agreed to stay back, making sure to keep Blaine in the perimeter and warn us of any activity. Gabbie will be watching the front gate.

I can see Andrew’s knuckles turning white as he grips the talkie. I’ve seen him nervous before, but this was another level. I can’t help but wonder what he’s nervous about. Is it the danger of our coming to the Scab sanctuary? Is it the idea of Aaron’s recipes falling into the wrong hands?

But when Andrew leans into me slightly, I realize with a pang that it’s of my own safety that he’s worried about.

I try to ignore it as we round the corner of the long drive toward the deserted sanctuary.

Grayson parks the car a ways away from the entrance, just in case.

“Let’s go,” he says quietly, prompting us all to get out of the car. Each of us grab a gun from the trunk, checking ammunition. Alexis and Emmett decide to stick to knives. Grayson and I take the lead, followed by Alexis and Emmett while Andrew and David trail at the back, guarding our rear defense. We all have our empty bags hoisted on our shoulders, ready to be filled with anything and everything we can find.

Grayson grabs a flashlight from his pocket, shining on the ground in front of us. It takes us about a minute to reach the entrance of the sanctuary. Right away, we can tell it’s pretty much in ruins. Only a couple cabins are still standing, one of them being Aaron’s lab. The front gate is completely useless now, the wired fence bent at odd angles. We each have to maneuver our way through it, climbing over and under the prickly metal, being careful not to get cut. Once we’re all in, Grayson turns to us.

“Okay. Y/N, Andrew and I will go to the lab. I know where all of Aaron’s stuff is at that we’ll need if it’s still here. Emmett, David, and Alexis, you guys go to the other standing cabin. If it’s still stocked, it will be food in there. If Jack’s already made his rounds though, it might be depleted. Just grab what you can find,” he tells us all with a nod.

The other three make their way to the cabin without question, readying their weapons and securing their bags on their shoulders.

“Follow me,” Grayson tells Andrew and I.

We walk towards the lab building, and my heart manages to catch in my throat. It feels weird being back here, walking into this cabin as I had before, only last time, I was held at gunpoint by the unconscious boy back at my own safe place.

Grayson leads us up the steps and points his gun at the door, nudging his head towards Andrew. I also hold my own gun up, taking place beside Grayson as Andrew steps to the door, nodding his head in countdown before throwing it open. Grayson quietly but quickly steps into the entrance, training his gun at every corner of the room. Andrew quickly follows his lead, and I bring up the rear.

Once we’re sure the room is cleared, Grayson tries the light switch. It surprisingly turns on.

The room looks ransacked. Every vial that had been there before is shattered on the ground, however a few are missing, I can tell. I think Grayson can too, because he mutters a curse under his breath before heading to another door, holding his gun up and entering.

“They beat us to it,” Andrew says quietly, bending down and using his gun to nudge aside some broken glass.

I’m suddenly hit with a strange sense of deja vu, remembering the moments I had been in this room before, the sickly blue tint of the lights, the vials and vials of unattached body parts. Then I remember that there had been some papers on the opposite counter. But I don’t even need to look to know they’re gone.

Then I get the same feeling I had right before Ethan had announced his presence - the feeling of being watched.

My arms erupt in goosebumps as I turn around, half expecting to see someone other than Andrew standing there, but it’s just him, flicking his gaze over the mess in the room.

Grayson.

My heart lurches in my chest as I hurry to the door he went through moments ago, but stop in my tracks when I see him, standing ever so still with eyes as wide as saucers. When he sees me, they widen more and I can see the most subtle shake of his head, as if he’s afraid to move at all, and suddenly I know why.

I pause my entire body, almost daring to hold my breath as the cannibal looks up from the scraps on the floor, towards me. I keep my focus on Grayson, who looks incredibly weary. He must recognize the cannibal. It was probably one of his friends once upon a time.

The cannibal scratches its ear, sure it heard something. Slowly, it stands up from its place on the floor, where it had been feasting on a dead animal of some sort. It inches its way towards me, listing its head to each side, trying to detect movement.

Behind it, Grayson is raising his gun up ever so slowly, but his finger doesn’t find the trigger. The cannibal is right is his line of fire, but if he shoots it, he’ll shoot me too.

I’m still holding my breath as the cannibal inches closer, looking all around me. No doubt it sees the light in the room behind me, and I can only silently pray the Andrew doesn’t come crashing in here.

One move, that’s all it takes.

One move, and it will attack.

Now I’m holding my breath as the cannibal is inches away from my face. It’s dead eyes are practically boring into mine and I feel as though he can sense my presence despite my completely still body. Its bloody mouth drips to the ground and I can smell the dead animal flesh on it as it inches so close, its nose is almost on mine.

A gunshot fires.

The cannibal gives off a loud wail before falling to the ground, its head obliterated. I finally breathe out, panting as I look to my right, where Andrew’s gun is smoking.

Grayson sighs a breath of relief before making his way back over to me, placing his hand on my arm.

“Are you alright?” he asks, inspecting my features.

I frantically nod my head, catching my breath.

“You sure?” Andrew asks, also looking at every angle of my face.

“Y-yeah,” I stutter. I wipe a palm down my face, letting my nerves cool off for a moment before looking back to Grayson. “Let’s just get what we need.”

He nods, an apologetic look on his face as he turns back into the room, taking a quick glance at the dead cannibal, someone who was probably once his friend, before making his way to the pad-locked filing cabinets at the back of the room.

“Y/N,” Andrew breathes, placing his hand on my shoulder to turn me to face him. “You’re sure you’re fine?” His eyes bear into mine and his knuckles are white again as they grip the handle of his gun.

“Yes,” I tell him, shrugging off his hand and walking out the door.

* * *

Even though the vials were all destroyed or missing, Aaron’s recipes were all salvaged. Well, almost all of them.

The ones that held the formula from his most recent experiment were charred and unreadable, but at least we know Jack doesn’t have them.

Grayson managed to grab every paper he could from the cabinets that Aaron had stored them all. Alexis, Emmett, and David managed to find a good amount of canned food in the other cabin. They had been hidden in another padlocked safe by Grayson himself.

“I didn’t trust Jack from the start,” he’d said. “So I kept my own safe with my own supplies. No one knew the passcode but Ethan. There should be some food and a couple weapons in there.”

So as we all sit in the car on the drive back to the camp, every one of our bags are full of papers and food and weapons and pretty much everything we were able to salvage that wasn’t destroyed.

The ride is silent, everyone pretty shaken up. Alexis had panicked when she’d heard the gunshot. Emmett had found a dead body, not yet a cannibal that he had no choice but to kill - or,  _re_ -kill - in order to assure our safety, so he’s still a little scarred from that.

But Andrew seems the most affected. It’s not new to him to shoot and kill a cannibal, but my sudden rejection of him beck there is probably what’s making him act this way.

He’s pouting as he looks out the window, leaning against it. His body is pressed completely up against the door, as if he’s afraid to touch me.

I don’t really remember what brought me to act to rudely to him when he’d asked if I was okay, but I know that when he did, an image of Grayson, carrying Aaron into our camp and a limping Ethan, covered in blood and his hazel eyes and his weak and desperate gaze flashed into my mind.

I was alright, Andrew had saved me from something terrible happening.

But those weren’t. They aren’t.

They had friends and a sanctuary before they needed us. They had people that trusted them and loved them, and they were all gone. Grayson had known the cannibal. He’d recognized him.

So when Andrew had continued to ask if I was okay, I felt defensive for the three Scabs in our camp. They were the ones who need to be asked if they’re okay. Because they probably aren’t.

“You knew him didn’t you?” I suddenly ask as we pull up to the camp. Grayson catches my gaze for a moment before nodding, but he doesn’t say anything. “Are you okay?” I ask. I can feel Andrew tense up beside me.

Grayson breathes for a few beats before putting the car in park and shutting down the ignition. Alexis, Emmett and David climb out of the backseat in a hurry, almost seeming like they shouldn’t be a part of this conversation. Andrew sighs once beside me before opening his own door and climbing out, slamming it shut behind him. Grayson is staring at the wheel, waiting for them all to be at the gate before he turns to me.

“I will be.”

I see a faint smile on his lips before he grabs the bag in my lap and hoists it over his shoulder. Then he climbs out of the car, holding the door for me to climb out behind him.

At the top of the tower, Liza looks down and gives a nod to someone below her. The gate opens and we all walk inside. Trevor smiles in greeting before closing the gate behind us.

While everyone else heads towards Grayson and Aaron’s cabin, I make my way towards chow hall, my promise to Ethan in mind.

I shove my way through the door and waste no time heading to the pantry at the back. Scavenging the pantry, I find a half-full box of cereal. Then I grab two bowls, two spoons and a couple napkins before heading back out, taking the long way back to my cabin. I don’t think about Aaron or Grayson of Andrew as I walk up the steps to my home, opening the door and placing the two bowls across from each other at the only table in the cabin.

Then I get ready for bed, eager to wake up to eat breakfast with Ethan tomorrow morning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mature content and language (14+). Graphic content. Graphic depictions of corpses.

They tell you not to run when you spot a cannibal. They can only sense movement. They can hear you, too, but it’s their eyes that really seek out their prey.

So of course I freeze up completely when I see it.

Its flesh is hanging off its jaw, so I can see every single one of its teeth, all covered in blood and muck. I try not to gag.

I dare not to breathe as the cannibal preys around the room, looking in every which direction for movement. It must sense me in here.

Then there’s a scream.

I know who the voice belongs to, and it automatically makes my heart drop.

The cannibal growls and turns to the direction of the voice, running as fast as it can.

“No!” I scream, running after it. 

It runs upstairs, following the continuing screams, screams that I’m sure will haunt me forever now. I hear them too, and each one cuts deeper into me, hope plummeting with every step I take up the stairs, and they’re loud, drowning out my cries to try to get the cannibal to come after me instead, so I have no choice but to follow it, letting my feet carry me towards what I’m afraid I might find.

I’m up the stairs, and the screams have stopped. I look down at my hands, knowing moments before I’d had  knife with me, but it’s gone now. I must have dropped it in fear of the worst.

And the worst was probably here.

There were no more screams, just the sounds of cannibals ravishing a meal. There’s four doors lining the hallway of the house I don’t remember coming to. Slowly, I make my way down it, each step heavier than the last.

The first door is a bathroom. Empty.

The second is a bedroom. Empty.

The third door. It’s covered in blood. Handprints a size I know. I’ve held those hands before, I’m sure of it.

Hot tears are streaming down my face now. I already know what’s behind that door and I’m not even in the room yet.

Sickening slurps and disgusting chewing fills the room as I enter.

Two cannibals. Over the body. 

Her body.

Feasting.

I scream.

One cannibal turns to me, lunging without a second thought.

I open my eyes, gasping. I’d sit up, but I hardly have the strength.

My heavy breathing fills the cabin, and I realize I’m still at the camp, my arm wrapped snugly in a bandage and my foot propped up, just as it had been for two days now.

I swipe a palm down my face. I’m drenched in sweat from my nightmare. I quickly glance over at Y/N’s bed. She’s tucked under her own covers, facing away from me. I can tell her breathing is heavy, so I know she’s asleep. I’m only a bit surprised I didn’t wake her, considering I’ve always been a loud sleeper. It’s always worse with the nightmares, too.

Sighing, I look back up at the ceiling. I recognized the body in my dream. I can swear it was Y/N’s but I’m not sure why I’d dreamt of her.

She’s made it obvious since day one that she has no interest in me, but who can blame her? I haven’t exactly given her any reason to like me. What, with the capturing her and her people, almost taking off her friend’s head - although I  _ swear _ I wasn’t going to, I was just curious to see who had the balls to stop me. And Y/N had been the one to so it.

Liza, I think that’s her name, she’s forgiven me for it. Said she hates me a little, but forgiven nonetheless. Y/N’s a different story. I don’t think she’s forgiven me. I’m not sure she ever will.

Something about her pulled me in that day in our sanctuary. She stood up to me like no one else had. It was the first real challenge I’d ever been faced since the virus broke out. Well, the first real challenge from a real human who hasn’t been infected.

Y/N begins to stir in her bed, making me turn to look at her. Her body flips over, settling further into the blankets, but she’s facing me now. I wonder how long she’s been asleep. 

Or how long I’ve been asleep, for that matter.

I look out the deck door, the one that leads out back to the lake. It’s still a bit dark outside, but I can see the sun rising in the distance. It casts a warm glow into our room. 

Now I’m looking at Y/N again, the sunshine on her serene face. It makes her look youthful and soft.

I know for sure now that it  _ was _ her in my dream, being eaten by cannibals. The thought makes me tremble and I slowly sit up, trying to push the thought away.

I run a lazy hand through my hair as my stomach begins to rumble. I’m suddenly plagued with the memory of praactical starvation before I’d fallen asleep last night. I also remember Y/N standing over me, promising to bring me back food before we went to sleep, but I can’t remember falling asleep at all.

That’s when I notice a box of cereal and two bowls sitting on the table at the other side of the room. It makes my stomach growl louder, echoing off the walls. I almost laugh at how loud it is, especially after it makes Y/N stir again, folding her arm underneath her head. But she remains asleep.

I vaguely remember asking her to eat with me and her refusing, saying she’d rather die than do that. The memory pangs the nightmare of her still body back into my head, and I have to pinch my hand to make myself forget it again.

I’m too hungry to wait, though, even if I want to eat with her. So I slowly turn my body around, letting my legs fall off the bed, being careful with my covered one as I settle it onto the floor.

I limp my way to the table with my IV stand rolling beside me, grabbing both bowls and the cereal before taking them out the back door. I settle myself onto the ledge of the back deck, letting my feet dangle off the side. The wooden lining of the deck’s fence comes up to my chest so I can lean against it. I pour some cereal into one of the bowls, leaving the other one on the floor beside me. 

No sooner than I take a spoonful into my mouth do I hear small padded steps coming to the door. I can hear it open behind me, but I don’t take my gaze from the lake in front of me, my arms resting on the wood as I scoop more cereal into my mouth.

“You started without me,” Y/N’s voice says through a yawn. She bends down to pick up her own bowl and then sits beside me, crossing her legs beneath her.

“You looked too comfortable. I didn’t want to wake you,” I confess. I still don’t look at her, I’m afraid of seeing my nightmare again.

She sniffs. Then she pours cereal into her bowl before setting it into her lap. “I brought this to you last night, but you passed out.”

I can see out of the corner of my eye that her foot twitches after she says this, a weird mannerism that makes me think she might be lying, but I pretend not to notice.

I nod at her, shoving more cereal into my mouth. Maybe if I eat long enough, I won’t have to say anything. Maybe she’s not as hungry as I am and she’ll finish before me and leave and go do whatever it is she does here.

My nerves are suddenly on edge around her, and I know it’s because of my dream. It had genuinely scared me, the thought of her dying before my eyes. I try not to shudder.

“I can see why you didn’t want to give up this cabin,” I find myself saying, trying to get the thought of her lifeless body out of my head. I feel her eyes on me for a second, but then she looks out to the lake, the sunrise on the horizon. When she’d been so adamant about staying here, I thought maybe it was because she’d been here from the beginning. It wasn’t until now, looking out at the lake, that I realize why she wanted to stay here.

“The world is so fucked up,” she says with a scoff. “It was even before the outbreak.” She’s silent for a moment, taking another bite, then she swallows and continues. “There’s so many fucked up things on this planet that you need to find something to remind you that there’s still some beauty in it. This,” she says, waving out towards the lake, “keeps me sane. Even if I lose someone to a cannibal or a group of assholes,” she pauses.

I swallow. It doesn’t take a genius to know she’s talking about me.

“Even if there are so many things that make this world so ugly, this is still here to remind me it can be beautiful.”

Now I look at her. She’s gazing out at the lake, the sunrise settled on her face making her look ethereal. My chest contracts simply at the sight of her.

Here, breathing. 

Alive.

“That can apply to people, too, you know?” I say quietly, almost afraid that if I speak too loud, this moment might dissolve.

She turns her head to look at me, and it’s only now that I notice her eyes, bright and sparkling. They’re no longer threatening like they’d been at the sanctuary and they’re not skeptical like they’d been when Aaron, Grayson and I first showed up. They’re curious now, questioning.

“I’m really sorry about everything we might have put you through. I’m not perfect by any means, not that you don’t know that already. I’ve done plenty of fucked up things, before and after the outbreak.” I pause, gauging her reaction, but when her expression doesn’t change, I continue. “But I don’t want to be a bad person.”

She continues to look at me for a moment before sighing and looking down at her cereal bowl. “I don’t think you’re a bad person. I did when I first met you, but,” she trails off, a small smile curling at her lips. The sight makes my fingers tingle. She looks at me again, but doesn’t say anything.

“I just want you to know that I’m on your side now. All of us are,” I tell her.

She slowly nods her head, the hint of the smile still on her lips. “I know.”

Then we continue to eat in silence, staring out at the lake, watching as the sun rises in the distance. We eat the rest of what’s left of the cereal, managing to get get five bowls out of it - I eat three of them.

As I stuff the last spoonful of cereal into my mouth, a thought occurs to me. “You know, I don’t blame him or anything, but your boyfriend really does  _ not _ like me,” I say through the mouthful.

Her head shoots up in surprise and she turns so her whole body is facing me. “Sorry?”

“That guy, Andrew?”

“He is  _ not _ my boyfriend,” she sputters quickly, wiping her mouth.

My eyebrows inch upwards. “He’s not?”

Y/N frantically shakes her head. “No, why? Did he say that he was?” She looks horrified.

It’s incredibly cute.

I smile and turn back to the lake. “Nah, it was just the way he looks at you, I guess.”

Her brows crease together, seeming to contemplate this. She really has no idea, does she?

I remember when she’d been standing in front of me at the sanctuary, my dumb ass kept taunting her and Andrew had been behind, glaring up at me. If it hadn’t been for one of my men holding a gun against his temple, I would have sworn he would’ve lunged at me. His eyes had been daggers, ripping me apart by just looking at me.

I’d been kind of - only kind of - afraid of him.

“Well, I’m sorry if he gave off the wrong impression. We aren’t- we’re not…” She struggles, and I can’t tell if it’s because she likes him too or if she just genuinely is surprised by this newfound information.

“Hey, I was wrong, no big deal,” I assure her, leaning back on my hands. “I mean, who can blame him for looking at you that way? You aren’t too bad on the eyes.”

I like doing this, teasing her. It’s not too hard to get a rise out of Y/N and it’s just way too fun.

She slaps me hard on my arm - the bad one. I hiss in pain. 

“Shit, sorry, I forgot,” she says hurriedly, placing her hand on my arm at the same time I do. As soon as my hand touches hers, she flinches, but she doesn’t retract it.

“We’re even,” I say with a wince, patting her hand gently. 

“Maybe you should keep your snide comments to yourself and maybe we won’t have that problem again,” she says, her tone teasing. 

I look at her again, really look at her, and smile.

We’re both silent, just looking at each other, and the spot where her hand rests on my arm is burning, but not from the pain. I wonder if she can feel it too as I lean in closer, my gaze falling to her lips.

“Y/N?” a voice says from behind us. 

We jolt apart as Alexis pads through the cabin and out the back door. “Hey- oh!”

Y/N quickly stands and grabs both our dirty bowls, turning to Alexis. 

“Am I interrupting something?” Alexis asks with a smirk.

“Breakfast,” I answer with a shrug, smirking myself. Y/N glances down at me, glaring.

“Oh. I see,” she replies, giving me a subtle nod. “Well, that’s actually what I came here for, but seeing as you already ate…”

“I’m on gate duty today, better get out there before Blaine has a cow,” Y/N says hurriedly before shoving the bowls into Alexis’s hands and retreating to the cabin.

Alexis watches her go, but turns back to me, not even trying to hide her smile.

“Gate duty?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “She’s exempt from gate duty.”

There’s a small tinge of hurt in my stomach. I get she might have been embarrassed by Alexis’s sudden arrival, but did she really need to make up an excuse to get away from me that badly?

“I’ve also  _ never _ seen her blush like that before.” Alexis leans against the doorframe, crossing her arms in front of her. “What were guys really doing?”

I sigh, but smile. “We were eating breakfast, talking about the beauty in the ugly, discussing her rendezvous with Andrew. The usual,” I finish with a shrug before turning back to the lake, picturing Y/N’s glowing face as she talked about it, her eyes full of wonder and hope.

I hear the clank of the bowls before Alexis comes to stand beside me, not sitting down, but leaning against the railing of the porch.

“He’s always had this thing for her. Y/N I think pretends not to notice, but…” She trials off, kicking spilt pieces of cereal off the porch.

“She seemed genuinely shocked when I mentioned it,” I say.

I can see Alexis’s eyes twitch in curiosity. When she doesn’t say anything, I decide to drop the subject. 

“Well, don’t let me keep you from breakfast,” I tell her, leaning forward onto the railing again.

“Y/N’s been hurt before you know?” she says suddenly. I just continue to stare out at the horizon. The sun if still looming in the sky, but it’s much higher than it had been when I first came out here.

“I’m not telling you this because I think you need to hear it, I’m telling you because I love Y/N. She’s my best friend and means more to me than anything in this world,” she continues.

This confession makes my breathing pause. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume Alexis is in love with Y/N the same way Andrew might be. I take a peek up at her, but she’s gazing out at the lake now, where there are kids beginning to swim and play around in the water. Her eyes are a reflection of Y/N’s for a second, a glimmer of hope shining within them as they admire the view.

“Her heart has been broken too many times to count.”

When she doesn’t elaborate, I squint up at her. “Why  _ are _ you telling me this?”

She sighs. It’s a sound of consideration, as if she herself doesn't know why she’s telling me this. 

“Because she’s fragile and I love her and I know what she looks like when she about to hand her heart to someone.”

She pauses, taking in the lake and the sun for another gleaming moment before glancing down at me, her eyes warning, but sincere. “Guard it with you life.”

And then she leaves, taking the bowls with her.

* * *

 

After a few more minutes of admiring the lake some more, and then deciding that it felt a bit creepy to be watching a bunch of kids play in the water, I make my way back into the cabin.

My foot feels so much better, and I only limp a little bit as I trudge towards my bed, towing my IV stand with me. God, I wish I could take this thing out. 

On my bedside table is a couple more novels that weren’t there before. Alexis must have brought them to me. Beside them is the talkie that the nurse Bre had given me in case of an emergency. I can only hope she’s still in the infirmary and not out for breakfast as I take a seat on my bed and pick up the talkie, turning the knob on it to spike the radio.

I press down on the comm button and hold it up to my lips. “Bre?” When I release, I’m met with static. I try again, turning the dial just a bit before saying her name again. “Bre?” More static. 

I sigh and go to turn the knob back into the off position when a booming voice echoes through the cabin. 

“Bre’s out for breakfast, who’s comming?”

It’s not a voice I recognize, so I know it’s not David or Emmett or Andrew. I know the name Trevor has been mentioned before, but it doesn’t sound the way Y/N had described. 

“Hello? Are you there?” the voice asks again.

There’s plenty of people in this camp, so it could be anybody, really. I’ve got to think fast.

“Um, are you a nurse, too?” I ask with a small voice, hoping I sound sick or something.

“No, I’m sorry. It’s Blaine,” the voice says. He must think I’m one of is typical residents, which is good, but it doesn’t help the growing pace of my heartbeat. 

Alexis said to steer clear of Blaine for as long as possible. Apparently the guy doesn't exactly warm up to just anybody. He also knows who we are - the Scabs. Well, he knows our reputation in the way Y/N had before we came here. So suffice to say, he probably doesn't like us.

“Is this Matt?” Blaine asks. “You out of your meds already? I’d bring them to you myself, but you know Bre. Might have to wait until she comes back-”

I suddenly panic, unsure of what to say, so I turn the knob off, shutting down the talkie before my mouth fails me and I say something totally stupid.

I throw the talkie back onto the table and run my hands down my face, trying to simmer my nerves. But the hope is short lived when there’s a knock at the door, making me jump with a gasp. I roll my eyes, seeing a familiar silhouette through the screen on the door.

“What?” I ask Andrew with a groan. I fall back onto my sheets, placing my good arm over my eyes while I listen to the door open.

“Where’s Y/N?” he asks, his voice low and seemingly angry.

“Gate duty,” I respond with a shrug, letting my arm drop. I can see him smirk out of the corner of my eye. With a deep breath, I shut my eyes, clenching my fists and trying to keep myself from lunging at him

“She never has gate duty.”

“That’s where she said she was off to,” I answer, not bothering to look at him.

I hear him prance into the room and sit on her bed, and suddenly my blood is boiling already.

“She probably just couldn’t stand to be in the same room as you any longer,” he says. I finally look at his smug face as he leans back on her bed, making himself comfortable. “I probably just missed her at the chow hall.”

“We ate breakfast together.”

He stills, but only for a second. “You and her? Yeah right,” he says with a scoff. He closes his eyes in leisure.

“We did. We even watched the sun rise together.”

His eyes open.

“We ate cereal.”

His jaw tightens.

“It was delicious,” I finish.

“I don’t like you,” he says suddenly, sitting up in a flash.

“Really? I couldn’t tell,” I answer sarcastically. Behind my eyelids, I roll my eyes. 

“Don’t get smart with me, asshole. It’s bad enough you’re under the same roof as her, but I swear to god, if you lay a finger on her, I will come down here, make you a cannibal’s snack, and chop off your limbs myself.”

My eyes shoot open. “Excuse me?” 

“You heard me. I’m sure you’d make a great test subject for that whiz kid.”

Aaron. He must be talking about Aaron. But how does he know about the research and his methods? The mention of cutting off my limbs makes me think of Stephen, Aaron’s most recent trial.

“I won’t think twice about sacrificing you. So keep your hands to yourself, Scab.”

After his final threat, he hops off Y/N’s bed and out the door in a flash.

My mind races.

When we had all talked about Aaron’s research, we never mentioned anything about  _ how _ he was conducting his research, as a matter of fact, the topic was glazed over in that conversation. Y/N and Grayson suggested we go back to the sanctuary to get anything we could scavenge, but I knew it was much too dangerous to go. I wouldn’t allow them.

Now it clicks.

Y/N had slipped something into my drip last night, I remember. At the time, I’d thought it was just because I needed more healing fluids or whatever. I didn’t question because I thought she was just doing what Bre had told her to do. But now I know it must have been some sort of sedative to make me sleep so her and Grayson could slip out to scavenge for Aaron’s research. The only way Andrew would mention sacrificing me would be if they managed to get some of Aaron’s formulas after all.

God damnit.

Shaking my head in frustration, I grab the talkie back off the desk and switch it on. I turn the dial further than I had before, to seek out a different talkie, the one that’s in Grayson and Aaron’s cabin.

“Gray?” I say into it. His response is almost immediate.

“E?”

“You and Aaron get your asses down here, now.”

The line is silent for a few moments, but he eventually responds. “We can’t right now, Blaine is on duty.”

“I don’t give a fuck who is on duty, when were you going to tell me you went back to the sanctuary?”

Silence again. Blood boiling again.

“Who went?” I ask, not sure I want to know the answer.

“Me and a few of the others. Aaron stayed behind.”

“ _ Who went? _ ”

More silence. I try not to let my hand chuck the talkie across the room.

“Andrew, Alexis, Emmett, David…” Grayson pauses. I’m afraid I already know he’s about to say.

“ _ And? _ ”

“Y/N.”

I bring my fist to my mouth and bite down on a knuckle, letting it keep me from screaming. Why am I so mad about this?

My mind's telling me I should be grateful Aaron’s formulas didn’t fall into the wrong hands, but the thought of Y/N going there, where Jack could have been waiting to kill the first person who crossed the border, sets my skin on fire. And yeah, I’m worried about the rest of them, too, but a flash of Y/N’s lifeless body underneath two feasting cannibals crosses my mind for what seems like the thousandth time today, replaying the gorey, vivid nightmare I had last night.

“You drugged me?” I ask, remembering how Y/N had handled my drip last night.

“Don’t worry, I made sure she didn’t poison you or anything,” Aaron’s voice says right away.

“That’s not what-” I cut myself short, frustration taking over again.

“Look, Ethan, we knew you wouldn’t let us go. We needed to get these recipes before Jack did. We’re sorry,” Grayson says, his voice calm and quiet.

I sigh and rest my head in my hand, rubbing at my temple. “Was anyone hurt?” I ask, almost hesitantly. Y/N seemed fine this morning, but you can never be too sure.

“No. Everyone came back okay,” Grayson says. He’s silent for a second before adding, “Y/N was okay.”

He knows me way too well, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that we’re twins.

* * *

 

Bre comms me a couple hours later, allowing me to almost finish  _ The Grapes of Wrath _ , although it is probably the most boring book I’ve ever read. But I’m trying to appreciate it the way Alexis seems to. She’d gone on and on about how good it was. I really admired the gleam in her eyes when she talked about it, so I agreed to read it.

“103?” Bre’s voice says from the comm. I’m glad I didn’t turn off the talkie after I’d finished talking to Grayson and Aaron.

“I have a name you know,” I repl, holding it to my lips.

“You good?” she asks. Just her usual checkup.

“Actually, I was wondering if I’m good to go on the drip?” I ask, toying with the rubber tube attached to my arm.

“Hmm. Are you feeling nauseous at all?”

“Nope?”

“Overly tired?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Have you eaten today?”

“Sure have.”

The line is quiet for a moment before she speaks again. “I’m sure you should be okay. Just keep the supplies there in case you need it again. And come to me if your stitches open up. I’ll be there soon to take the drip out.”

“Actually, can you send Y/N to do it?” I ask, afraid there’s too much hope in my voice.

“That isn’t something I showed her how to do, but I’ll bring her with me. It will be better if she knows how to do it anyways, although I’m still a little on the fence about letting her touch my stuff anyways-”

“Thank you, Bre,” I cut her off, switching the talkie down before she can talk my ear off any more than she already has.

Not ten minutes later is Bre demonstrating to Y/N how to remove the drip safely and store it away properly for later use if we need it.

“And you have to be careful with the needle, we obviously don’t want you to poke yourself. And then you’ll store it here. I’ve packed some extra needles, though. Never reuse a needle.”

“Got it, Bre,” Y/N says, her voice laced with a hint of annoyance. She looks at me with wide eyes and smirk. I don’t return it. I’m too mad at her right now.

“All good?” Bre says, not waiting for an answer before trotting out the door.

Y/N shakes her head, closing the kit. “Gotta love Bre. Although she could probably go on forever about nothing and-”

“You left camp last night,” I tell her, cutting her off. She doesn’t say anything, just keeps her gaze on the kit at it zipped all the way shut. I stare at her back, almost daring her to face me. 

When she does, she avoids my eyes and hooks her hands behind her back. I half expect her to look guilty, but there’s not a hint of it written on her features and when she meets my eyes finally, there’s pride there. Determination.

She really is not afraid of me, and that is probably the sexiest thing I’ve come to notice about her.

“Yes,” she says simply, her voice hard but quiet.

“Were you going to tell me?”

She narrows her eyes at me. “I might have, but you were asleep before we decided to leave.”

“Oh really?”

Her head cocks to the side ever-so-slightly, testing me. The corner of her mouth twitches and i can see her bite her cheek. She’s trying not to smile.

“So what was it?” I ask, standing up from my bed. Now without the drip in my arm, I can move freely, although still with a bit of a limp. “Diazepam? Midazolam?” I slowly step towards her. “Methohexital.”

Her eyelid twitches. Bingo.

“What would Bre say if she found out you stole her drugs?” I ask, stepping even closer to her. Her arms travel to her front, crossing over her chest.

She stays silent.

I step closer.

“Find anything useful while you were there?” I ask, stuffing my hands into my pockets. 

I inch closer.

“Yes, actually,” she answers, not daring to move. 

I’m all but standing right in front of her now, only a couple inches from stepping on her toes. I can see her neck and cheeks flush, but I don’t say anything.

We stand face to face for a good thirty seconds, staring the other down, neither of us saying anything, almost daring the other to move, but we don’t. 

Her breathing is shallow and I’m sure she can see my ears turn red with my own blush, but she doesn’t say anything, either.

“Blaine has left the perimeter,” a female voice cuts through the room through the walkie on Y/N’s belt loop.

I smirk, leaning in.

My lips brush her ear for a split second.

“I’m going to take a shower.”

Then I walk to the closet, grab a change of clothes, and head out the door, the smirk never leaving my lips.


End file.
